The Dragonfeed
by dragonsdeed
Summary: Some strange things have been happening to Natsu Dragneel lately. His motion sickness is suddenly cured and his Dragon Slayer Magic has drastically weakened. On top of that, Lucy doesn't want to see him anymore, Gray isn't picking fights with him, and every time Erza looks at him; she just shakes her head and sighs. What's happening to him? And what is going to happen to him?
1. Summertime Dilemmas

**Author's Note: Hello everyone!~ I present you an idea that touched my wondrous brain one day! Like everyone else I want you little guys to rate and review plus open constructive criticism is welcomed! I encourage you guys to try to read all the way through this chapter, and I do plan to make this a little series. Throughout the series, I plan to make it almost only Natsu's point of view in third person. Now and then you might get a snip of someone's else or whatever. Also excuse my tendency to curse quite a bit. It's a bad habit of mine and it rubs off on my writing naturally. Sorry if my shitty poor excuse for my motherfucking bad habit isn't bitchy enough for you or if my badass cursing bothers you.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Summertime Dilemmas**

_Fire._ It really tastes good. There was no way to explain how it tasted; it was just straight out good.

On a wonderful Saturday, he recalled that Lucy had asked him what fire tasted like. He just shrugged and flashed his dazzling, signature grin, saying "It's just good!"

There was no way to define it. It was just a feeling he couldn't spell out with words itself.

It was the same how he felt Igneel as his father.

How Lucy was weird.

How Gray was a fucking wimpy ice princess.

How Erza was scary, and that secretly she dyed her red hair with her enemy's blood.

How Wendy was like a sister to him.

How Gajeel was the steel–ass of the century and not in a good way.

How Juvia_ was v_ery quirky, especially with her skills at stalking.

This list could go on forever.

He, Natsu Dragneel, was on the near point of a deep sulking session, something that was completely rare for him. There was so many things going completely haywire in such a quiet manner. It tore him apart and tattered his brain. He ran a hand through his _salmon _(not pink) hair; he almost wanted to rip it out but then thought against it.

First of all, the other day he rode on a train with Happy and Lucy for a job. It might have seemed normal if he had gotten motion sickness like he always does with transportation. But, this time had _red_ marks written all over it because he didn't get motion sickness at all.

Both Lucy, Happy, and himself sorta freaked out. And when he meant sorta, he meant a shit ton.

The very first phrase Lucy decided to say when he didn't throw up was, "Who are you!? I demand to know where the real Natsu is!"

He swore you could see her from the other train carts dancing her head off in panic with "juices" (as Happy would say it) on her forehead. Lucy was flailing her arms up and down with the most worried and weird expression on her face, the comical kind. Actually, he would've laughed if it was any other time. Panicking Lucy is hilarious.

After her, Happy's reaction would have been equally funny, if he had been in a different situation, "Natsu! Are you sure you're okay? Maybe Wendy's Troia is making a very late effect now! Or maybe Lucy's right! WHERE _IS_ NATSU!?"

He was flying all over their tiny cart, and you could clearly see the annoyed faces of the other passengers. Happy had said more but Natsu couldn't exactly remember or make out the words he was rambling. Happy rambled a lot. But usually it was in a duo with yours truly, Natsu.

He was puzzled too. He was afraid of what was happening to him. On the outside, he was just raging on Happy and Lucy that it was him, but on the inside he was lost. Lost in what was going to occur and what was he excepting. He wasn't sure what he had to feel. In result, he was confused and tangled. It was like this too, the same feelings, he had when Igneel had vanished. Normally, these thoughts didn't come to him anymore ever since Lucy arrived.

* * *

_There was things Natsu Dragneel didn't want to have to worry about,_ he mentally reminded himself pausing the camera–eyed memory. When Igneel had left him, he felt crossed, sad, nervous, frightened, angry, depressed, concerned, afraid, and confused. Invisible punches were directed at his gut as he glanced at the guild hall around him. People were here. Ones he knew as his comrades. Ones he was currently confused about. Would they leave him like Igneel? Or would they be like his biological parents who he rarely concerned himself about? Would he forget them or would they forget him? Questions slapped into his face. He didn't know how to answer them.

Even past Natsu didn't know so how should present Natsu know?

Back into his photo book of two–days ago was where he searched for his answers.

* * *

It took a lot of convincing and yelling to ensure Lucy and Happy that he was the real Natsu and that he was fine. For a minute, he thought Lucy was going to fight him with her Celestial Key buddies and Happy would just be moral support for Lucy. He couldn't fight them since they were comrades right? That was one situation he had to look out for and avoid.

He, honestly, hoped he'd never fight Lucy one-on-one _ever... _uh, Happy too in that boat.

And, he thought the trouble would end_ there_ with the complaints from Luce and Happy.

Soon their train soundly arrived at an abandoned town named Borchard. He now hates Borchard.

They had taken a job request to locate a chaotic monster and restrain it so it could be captured. In other words, they had to find it, beat it up, and call up the pound.

The town of Borchard had been surrounded by desert and sunshine, short brick buildings and tall walls stood straight, all of it empty because of this creature. He wasn't quite sure if he would ever see the scene again (Lucy suggested it was his destructiveness) so he held his breath and watched it for a moment. It was very pretty in that deserty town-like appearance. He decided he liked the view. Lucy had advised for Team Natsu beforehand to temporary split-up so they can cover more ground to find the beast. Whenever one of them found it, they would just start yelling so the others can hear (or just follow the roars and explosions.). Natsu didn't exactly like being separate from his comrades, especially _Lucy,_ but he reluctantly agreed anyways. He kinda hoped he'd find the monster first; he wanted to beat the crap out of it.

So there was the pink haired boy wandering and searching every corner and nook he came across, putting all his effort into finding it. He had tried to pick out the scent of the monster, but something was blocking his nose so he couldn't sniff it out. He really wanted to catch the freak.

He was focused on his search, he ignored all other distractions; food, charcoal, more food, even that one guy who was frying up some real, _spicy_ steaks in heated red, _red_ flames. _Fuck._ He couldn't believe how much he was restraining himself.

He tried to take his mind off of things while subconsciously looking around; find monster_ equals_ fight the bastard _equals_ reward money_ equals_ Lucy's rent temporarily paid and some food money for him and Happy. _Oh shit._ He had thought about food. Food.. Drool slowly fell from his mouth as his walking pace quietly halted.

Fire is_ food._

Fire tastes _good._

He wanted some of that…

What the hell was he thinking? He mentally screamed while physically punishing himself with a couple slaps on the cheeks. For Mavis, he couldn't even focus, focus on Lucy's next rent payment. What kind of friend was he if he couldn't do such a simple task of helping out a friend? Stupid Natsu!_ Stupid!_

Lucy needs help! Lucy needs…

He could've sworn he heard explosions in the distance. Oh no, no,no... OH FUCKING NO. He sprinted in the direction of the havoc.

* * *

The fire dragon arrived at the scene fashionably late (not on purpose, of course). To add onto that, guess who found the jerk face anyways? A CERTAIN BLOND HAIRED CELESTIAL MAGE!

He needed to improve his tracking skills.

He found her fighting off the monster who seemed to fit the description in the request form quite accurately.

Fucking gigantic like almost as big as Igneel just a size smaller. _Check. _

Wolf-like features even an annoying howl now and then. _Check. Check_.

Dark fur with extra-aggressiveness and two beady yellow eyeballs. _CHECK! _

Somehow freaking Titan Magic like Gramps, just not as powerful but still looking as a bit of a challenge. _Ch-check? _

He wasn't sure anymore.

Then again this was Natsu Dragneel he was talking about, so when did he ever be sure of anything. Thinking's for Lucy, he was going head on into the battle. Natsu was readying himself up to join Lucy with her magical whip and Virgo, who seemed to be the only offensive spirit she had available that day, digging pitfalls for the wolfy's paws to get stick in. Now he could raise this party's heat a bit.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

"Fire. Dragon's. Roar!"

"FUCKIN'FIREDRAGON'SSHITTYROAARRRRR!"

"WHAT THE HELL?" he heard himself freak out loud as Lucy stared at him in awe with Happy overhead who just arrived at the scene speechless. He was screaming the right words and was in the correct stance to activate his magic but it was not freaking coming out. Why wasn't his magic working? Maybe there was an anti-magic barrier around. Then why did Lucy's and Happy's magic work? Maybe it was an anti-Dragon Slayer Magic barrier. Yea! That was it. But then if that was the case, it would've been like Freed's Runes Magic and some weird purple writing must have appeared somewhere. _Shit, shit._ He didn't know what to do._ Help me, help._

He wanted to make sure his magic didn't or did work. So he mustered all the magic power he could, at least attempting to hit one blow at the doggie. Natsu, at this exact moment, remembered the animal's name from the request from Cruslios the Hellhound. Well fuck you, Cruslios.

"FIRRRRRREEEE DDRRRRAAAAAGGGOONNNN'S RROOOAAARRRRRRR!"

...

_Only silence..._

H-his attack indeed did hit the asshole, but... but it was only a thin, small shot of_ fire_ like a dumbass weak laser. It would've been barely classified as a roar! More like throwing a weak lighted match at some stupid hound. Stupid hellhound.

He fell over, landing on his stomach. He struggled to get up and only managed to lift his head up with his arm and other arm's elbow supporting him. He was glad that Gajeel or Gray wasn't here. They would be teasing him about this for weeks, no months! But he was still embarrassed that anyone had witnessed that, especially_ Lucy._ Especially Lucy...

...and Happy.

Cruslios howled in response to his attack, not painfully but obviously comically. Dammit.

He felt his teeth claw together and move from side to side tightly. Lucy was still in shock, her mouth open and her whip at a stand still. Virgo, on the other hand, was busy at work making lots of deep holes and pitfalls (he should remind himself to be careful on where he stepped). Happy had finally landed and was currently off to the side, eyes widen open shivering.

He felt like he let his comrades down. He felt like he disappointed Lucy and Happy. He didn't know what to do next. He was useless, pathetic, at his current state.

"Princess, watch out," Virgo, who was still digging, warned Lucy of the motherfucker's next attack, a simple swipe of his paw at the ground. Lucy quickly jumped back out-of-the-way, snapping out of her trance. She started up her surge of attacks again with her Fleuve d'étoiles. The whip extended at her command switching from a length to length with that starry color shift. Her lips were animated saying words unremarkable to him at the hellhound as it constantly paused, falling into Virgo's traps.

Lucy looked absolutely_ beautiful._

On the battlefield, she was like an angel, maybe a valkyrie declaring the defeat of their enemies, inviting them to fall under her feet.

Yup, Lucy was weird.

* * *

_No, Lucy _is _weird,_ correcting himself still recalling the memory of the other day in the guild, his head propped under his hand. He didn't realize he had a strange expression on his face, like a sorta nostalgic far away one with a small grin creeping on him. The other members of the guild noticing it gave him a strange look, wondering what oh-so destructive Natsu Dragneel was thinking about. Oh right, Lucy, of course.

Lucy Heartfilia, Lucy of Fairy Tail.

Lucy, his beloved comrade.

Lucy.

Just Lucy.

…

* * *

Ah well, then, what exactly happened next was, um… He was outta of magic energy from just that one pathetic shot. He could barely move and Mister Cruslios was rampaging in the ruins of the city. It was freaking ditched 'cause of this guy, he couldn't blame the citizens. Cruslios was a bitch! All Natsu was wondering was how Lucy, Happy and himself missed this colossal sized puppy… Oh right, Titan Magic.

Around Natsu Dragneel was rumble and the remains of Borchard plus Happy, Lucy, and that guy. Lucy really needed to hurry up and beat the crap outta him.

Soon, the hellhound raised its head into the sky after several waves of Lucy's and Virgo's unified attacks and howled. It wasn't any kind of howl; an ear-bursting one, like the one he performed to Cobra during the Nirvana incident. It pretty much hurt his ears a lot. No, really, he could still feel the in ears ringing after two days… or was it one? But, he could see Lucy and Happy covering their ears when it happen (Virgo just really stood there expressionless like always). The attack was real heavy.

However, Lucy still pulled through in the end with one lash of her Fleuve d'étoiles, wrapping itself around one of Cruslios' legs, and yanking it really hard; the battle's curtain was dropped. It over was by Lucy pulling its leg flipping the hellhound over right after its maybe best move. Cruslios was on its back knocked-out from either using too much of its magic energy with that howl or the suddenly impact with the ground (Natsu thought it was the howl, but he refused to tell Lucy that).

Afterwards, it was pretty standard clean-up. Lucy called up the pound with the newly enhanced miniature lacrima provided by the clients. They got tons of thank-yous from the citizens of the town, even though he and Happy did absolutely nothing, and received the reward money from the clients who were the mayor and his wife of Borchard. Natsu didn't think they noticed the destruction Virgo created, probably thinking it was the hellhound's fault and not theirs.

Later, they took the train back to Magnolia with a conservation that was, even_ now,_ lingering on Natsu's mind.

"Hey, Natsu?"

"What is it, Lucy?" he glanced at the blond who was deep in thought, sitting across from him. The train was going fast, passing by this and that. He wasn't getting motion sickness which troubled him. Even when the train started to move again, it still surprised him, Lucy, and Happy. Oh, Happy fell asleep in Lucy's lap at the beginning of the ride. With that, It was a silent train ride back.

"Why do you think you don't have motion sickness?" she stared down at the floor of the train, her eyes completely focused in thinking.

"I.." he started struggling to find an answer for her, "I don't really know."

That was the only way he could put it. He hated letting Lucy down, but he couldn't think of a reasonable answer quick enough.

"Oh," she mumbled, tucking some loose hair behind her ear.

It was really awkward.

Normally, it was never this awkward for them but the motion sickness and his failure in the mission. How couldn't it be this awkward? He didn't like this silence he had with Lucy then.

* * *

Natsu sighed, temporarily pulling him from the distant memory and glances over to Lucy's direction. Here, she was laughing and having fun chatting with Levy. Here, he was wishing he was in Levy's place instead. Giggling, smiling with Lucy. It seems to be impossible now b-because…

His mind wanders back into his memories.

* * *

The Natsu two days ago watched Lucy carefully in concern. Was she sick? Is that why she was so quiet? He wanted to forget the failure in the mission and the relief from his fatal flaw that should've been a good thing. Life was a bitch.

After a couple of minutes riding the train that seemed so long, the pink haired boy decided to crush the icy silence like that dumbass Gray, "Luce?"

She moved her head up, her brown irises pointed right at him in confusion, "Yea?"

"Please don't hate me."

…

No answer yet.

...

...

"Natsu, I don't hate you." were the words that he_ slightly_ excepted to come out.

Instead he got, "Natsu, I don't think you should go on anymore missions for a while."

"Lucy?"

"Yea?"

"Why?"

…

"Because..." she voiced trailing off as she softly picked out the right words still piercing straight into his heart, "You can't use magic."

* * *

"I can't use magic," he gently repeated to himself back in the guild. He was cradling his arms back and forth absently. His seat was far away from the other guild members and no one had bothered to come up to him this morning. It was probably because he was doing something very rare for him; thinking.

Slowly, he was being tugged back into his crystal clear memories again.

* * *

His onyx eyes widened paralyzed in electric shock. It was tingling throughout the course of his temple. He was frightened by just this statement.

Now he, Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail_ the_ Salamander, had fought off all kinds of terrifying creatures and villains. But he was nearly pissing in his pants at a mere sentence. How sad was that?

He remembers exactly what happened next.

"No, Luce, I can fight!" he pleaded desperately, jumping up from his seat and begging on his knees, shaking hands folded, "I can still_ fight._"

The Celestial Wizard pried her eyes away from him in a troubling aura. It took another moment for her to answer, "I'll have to talk to Master about this."

Then, she neatly folded her hands in her lap; they were shaking themselves. He opened his mouth, attempting to say something about it, but words just wouldn't flow off his tongue. His eyes moved onto the floor in disappointment. He _couldn't_ comfort her.

"Natsu," he heard Lucy's voice call for him as he quit staring at the planks of wood beneath them; who had nice and quality steel nails bundling them together. Dammit, Gajeel was rubbing off on him. Her voice quivered, "I also think we shouldn't see each other anymore."

At that point, the first cracks in his world had fell apart, and for some reason it hurt more than his magic.

He wasn't sure. Almost like how he was incapable of describing the taste of black, delicious charcoal.

* * *

**Author's Note: Haha! I ended it. I actually meant this to go a little deeper into the plot but I guess my sluggish writing couldn't fit it all in the first chapter. Oh well. And for those of you guys who are confused about Natsu being all like depressed and in the guild at some point then back in Borchard is 'cause he's recalling a memory that was two days ago. Yea, I apologize for being a little too unclear, but my style of writing is a little indirect. But good news is I hope to post the second chapter by next week; Friday the 20th to be exact. Yup, see ya bastards.**


	2. Lucy Was Weird

**Author's Note: Hey guys! I love you all so fucking much for reading this like really. I don't think you understand how much I appreciate it. But last chapter, I forgot to say a couple things...**

**One, I'm not sure if my character–portraying is OOC or not, but please don't mind it too much if it is. (Natsu's a little, but it's told from his super deep thoughts so yea. Plus Lucy has a good reason why she's acting so weird.)**

**Two, excuse me for grammar mistakes. I am sorta grammar freak so yea. It bothers me.**

**Three, the time setting in this story compared to the actual series is after The Grand Magic Games.**

**Four, do you even read this?**

**Five, I completely forgot the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL. I OWN NOTHING AT ALL,_ I SWEAR._**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Lucy Was Weird**

Natsu Dragneel cringed at the faint memory. He felt twists under his skin, and he wanted to cry. Really_ hard._

His breath quickened heavy, teeth holding his bottom lip back. He refused to break out in tears in the middle of the guild. That was too girly, junior high girl girly.

He stood up from his place and quietly make his way to the guild's entrance. Some people tilted their heads in curiosity while others made notice of him but continued with whatever they were doing. In anyway, the entire guild knew of Natsu's dilemmas.

Just Natsu was the one who didn't. Well, at least who wasn't sure of his entire standings.

As soon as he left the guild's grounds, he headed to the old Sola Tree, his _favorite_ tree.

When he arrived he slumped at the tree's base. It was late in the afternoon, a vivid pink laid itself in the sky._ Like my motherfucking junior high girl girly hair,_ he remarked in his head. No one was in sight nor around to witness a pink haired boy bawling his eyes out.

Natsu, himself, couldn't believe it either.

Then again, he couldn't blame himself for tearing up with a mental breakdown sourcing to the third days (including today) worth of crap he'd gotten. It might have sounded childish to some people but...

He found his way back into his video slots of memories; dating back two days ago after he, Happy, and Lucy arrived back in Magnolia.

* * *

After his and Lucy's chat, the rest of the trip back was uneventful and dead silent. Happy was sound asleep. Lucy who was still deep in thought. Then there was Natsu who just sat there literally still in shock, struggling to down his new-found instructions from Lucy Heartfilia.

It was just plain fucking awkward.

When the train reached Magnolia, he wanted to barf, _yes barf._ He wasn't sure why but assumed it was maybe his motion sickness coming up late? He was completely wrong. _So so_ wrong.

In reaction, he ran out of the train (through the nearest window) and chucked out probably all his organs including his poor heart.

He felt a warm hand stroking his arm. He roughly gagged even more. He knew it was Lucy but with her "not seeing each other" speech made him... Sad? Yea, but it wasn't the right word for it.

It was like waiting for your friend to come pick you up from your house for an awesome new lacrimal movie that was showing, and you're really excited for it. However, it turns out your friend went by themselves instead because of reasons unknown to you. Though your friend did have the decency to call you up right before the movie started to tell you they wouldn't come to pick you up. Then there you are listening to the news devastated and disappointed on the phone. You waited all that time just for your friend to let you down.

He gagged as his _throw–up_ increased, burning his throat. Just before he let the geyser flow when he broke the train's glass window, he had found himself a nice big barrel for him to _ya know._

The hand on his elbow softly brushed his skin. Twists and knots under his skin. His eyes were sore and his tongue was tasting crap. He coughed before the last of the barf escaped form the ruins of his mouth.

His insides burned like the undergrounds of Hell.

He weakly glanced over to his barf barrel to find the gross kicked–out liquids in his stomach were black. Like they looked burned then covered with his spit almost like ashes?

What?

He frowned in disgust and chucked the barrel a long–ways–away. _Bye bye, you shitty half–assed barrel and vaguely remind me of Gray Fuckbutter... Damn ice princess._

Natsu then turned to face the familiar face of Lucy Heartfilia. He quickly wiped his mouth from all the extra slob and managed to pull up the sides of his cheeks, "No need to worry, Luce, I'm fine.~"

...That was so fake.

Lucy raised a brow, she obviously didn't get to see the contents of the barrel which slightly relieved him. He wanted to heard her say, "Natsu, you don't have to lie to me. Are you okay?"

Reality hit him shit hard as words dropped from Lucy's lips, "Alright. But you should head straight home."

What? Why was Lucy being so cold? She was usually concerned and worried for him at times like this. He meant she was, but it was a little different. It wasn't the weird he was used to from Lucy. It wasn't the same weirdness. Lucy was weird, but it wasn't Lucy's actual, real weirdness. It was just different, and he had no idea how to explain it. Lucy's still being weird, but it's not the same type of weird he... liked.

He meant liked as in how Erza liked strawberry shortcake. No, that was a little too much. Like comrade–like, partnership, yea, that was it. It was like that.

Couldn't be anything more.

Lucy's expression was blank, but it almost looked as if she didn't get that much sleep. Exhaustion was the word. Lucy was tired, probably from the work they had done... or his dilemmas.

Couldn't be his dilemmas.

"Natsu?" he glanced at the train and saw Happy poking his head from the window he had damaged, "Are you okay?"

He wanted to scream out to the world that he wasn't okay even if in front of Lucy and Happy. He fucking wanted to take his stress out on something like a tree or a forest. No, he wasn't okay. No, no, no, NO!

"Uh–huh."

That couldn't be a lie.

He flashed a grin to the exceed; he tried his best not to frown. Then he raised an arm and flexed it to show his recovery, "See? I'm always ready for a fight!"

He tried his best to sound happy to Happy.

"Aye, sir!" Happy jumped up happily in response and a little too naïve to see the scowl in his charcoal eyes. At least he didn't have to worry about a depressed Happy.

Afterwards, Lucy had to apologize for the broken window he made and the slight panic he caused to the train people. He ended up having to hand over some of his reward money, but it was no biggie. He was used to paying for his destructions (although Gramps often or not paid for them more than he did).

It was late evening (Team Natsu had left for the mission earlier in the morning). Lucy said she was heading back to the guild to tell them they're back, and Happy decided to tag along probably to see Carla. Even though Lucy said he should go home right away, he planned to drop by the guild hall later on, but right now he wanted some time by himself. _Alone._

The pink haired boy wasn't sure where to exactly go so he ended up just wandering Magnolia. During his time walking down the streets with lacrimal streetlights starting to light up and a dimming pinkish sky over his head, he remembered a certain memory as a child.

* * *

Natsu back in present time started to hum with the memory. It was a song that one day Igneel had taught him. By this point, tears began to glaze his once dried out eyes again.

And at some point, he stopped humming and began to lightly sing the song to himself.

_Some search for a dragon to slay_

_'Cause they think it leads to their princess_

_To death drops and soldiers run away_

_But they act like some damsel in distress_

He started to clap as he sang the next lines.

_Scales are a dragon's heart_

_Roars are a dragon's soul_

_I'll find my princess' kick start_

_So I can fend off the princes for your parole_

Igneel had taught this song to him when they were training together. They clapped their hands and stomped their feet together. It was a sweet memory with them laughing and smiling. It was almost like somebody covered it in glass and put a frame on it. He couldn't help but miss those times.

He almost wished he was a child again.

Then he reviewed the last events of his life; motion sickness equaled gone, Dragon Slayer Magic equaled gone, Lucy Heartfilia equaled gone. They had all slipped from his fingers like Igneel who equaled gone. But, he still held a chance to find them again... Right?

He couldn't be right.

He sang the last four lines almost in a whisper.

_Please don't be afraid; just sing_

_I'll take you under my dragon's wing_

_We are the terrors of your knights_

_So I want you, for freedom, to fight_

He never fully understood the song. Maybe he could ask Luce…

Nevermind.

Natsu wiped the back of his hand to his eyes and sighed. Stop thinking so much. It's kinda silly like Lu–…

Nevermind.

He should just quit thinking all together.

* * *

Natsu two days ago probably ran around singing that song for about uh.. maybe an hour? Then, he decided to head back to the guild. Boy was that a bad,_ bad_ decision.

* * *

_I make fucking bad decisions everyday,_ present Natsu sassed himself.

Lucy could help me…

Fuck you too.

* * *

When Natsu Dragneel entered the guild, it was normal, if you counted tons of yelling and Cana drinking alcohol in barrels, normal. The only people he couldn't find were Lu–...a certain blond, Queen Icicle, and Erza.

"Natsu!" he looked over his shoulder to see Wendy coming from his left.

"Wendy," he grinned which was actually sincere this time, and then he was lightly tackled by the little Dragon Slayer into a hug.

Wendy pulled away from the embrace and smiled, "Romeo was trying to find you this morning. Where were you?"

"Ah," he thought for a moment, completely blanking out the events of that morning, "Gee, I–..."

He suddenly remembered his troublesome dilemmas.

"I went on a mission with Happy and L–" he struggled to say the last word, "...u–ce–ce.."

She tilted her head in confusion, not understanding his mumbles, "And who?"

He eyed the floor, a little embarrassed, "Loh–mumum."

"Natsu, that was even worse. Who did you say?" the girl tried to politely pry it out of him, staring at him sideways.

"Lah–cue–ee."

"Natsu, who's a cutie? Please try to speak properly," Wendy begged leaning forward, trying to get his attention. He refused to met her eye and continued to pronounce whatever name he was attempting to say incorrectly.

"Loci."

"Loki? Well, that's quite rare. I didn't know you went on missions with Loki."

"N–no, Lah–nee."

"Lali? That sounds like a ship name. Wait, gimme a minute, I can probably figure it out by then."

"Uh–uh, Loh–ce."

"I know! You ship Laxus and Lisanna! That's kinda an odd ship, but I guess they do look good together."

"IT'S LUCY, DAMMIT!"

Wendy watched him wide-eyed, not expecting him to shout out so suddenly. Well, nor did the rest of the member who turned all their heads in curiosity to see where the commotion was erupting from. On the second floor, you could see the heads of Gray, Luh–cumum, Erza, and Gramps peering down on the first floor. _Guess I found those guys._

"A–ah..." the pink haired boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, immediately calming down, "H–hey guys. I didn't say _"it's Lucy, dammit"_ or anything... hehe.."

H–here comes the awkward silence.

The entire guild spent like five minutes staring at him with rushing thoughts in their imaginative heads. Probably everyone, but himself and Wendy, were jumping to extreme conclusions and misunderstanding completely. Well shit.

Surprisingly, Gajeel was the first one to break the ice (No Gray jokes here), "Woah, fire-breath actually took it to the next level with bunny girl. Holy shit. Holy _motherfucking_ shit."

After that, the entire guild exploded in celebration.

Elfman was yelling something like "I feel the man in the air! Dating is so very MAN!" Then, he was prancing around and took out a bandanna that said in big white letters "Nalu Forever" while wrapping it around his head. For some reason, mostly everyone else in the guild had some sort of article of clothing revealed that said the same two words.

"Na-nalu Forever?" he unusually asked Wendy nervously, meeting her eye, but then suddenly roared at the guild members partying, "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN!?"

Mira (who seemed to be one of the ones who were heavy clothed in Nalu attire) was carrying a tray of assorted drinks and sweetly smiled at him, "Hehe, it's yours and Lucy's ship name; Nalu. It's great you two are finally official."

Then she giggled covering her mouth with her free hand, keeping the unwashable smirk on her face, "I didn't even have to.. Oh, it's nothing, but I'm so happy that you're really canon!"

Mira probably shined the brightest upside-down scowl he'd ever seen in his entire life…

"WHAT!? NO WAY! ME AND LU–" a hand slapped over his mouth before he could say anything else.

"Hehe. I know you're excited Natsu–chan, but let's not say anything we might regret, _shall we?_"

...The look Mira was giving him was scaring the fuck out of him.

Like he thought he was going to actually piss in his pants, and he could've sworn he saw his life pass right before his eyes. Mira and her demonic eyeballs. The creepy aura around her. Her hands felt like a demon's claws ripping his skin face off.

* * *

Present Natsu sensed shivers coursing through his spine, and boy they weren't pleasant. Even the memories of scary Mira equally matched Erza's monster trip and..

They were all so nightmare–ishly scary and horrifying.

And there were fucking three of them.

More cold rushes climbed up on his skin. Sometimes, he wished there was an erase button on his memory slot. Too bad he was forced into traumatization with the memories drilled into his skull.

"DAMMIT YOU ALL!" he heard himself shout while he subconsciously stood up from his little seat and punched the Sola tree (at least he was conscious enough to not activate his magic).

* * *

Past Natsu quickly nodded in complete horror and terror. Sweat beads dappled his forehead as Mira gave him an eyeing glare that made him nod even quicker.

"Ah, that's nice, _Natsu._ Well, I hope you have a nice rest of the day!~" the white–haired mage released her grip on him (and her petrifying, devilish vibes) then waved him off with a gleeful beam. He had forgotten how truly intimidating Mirajane Strauss the She–Devil was.

Wendy glanced at him nervously then suddenly bowed in guilt, "I'm sorry, Natsu! I didn't mean for this misunderstanding to happen!"

"Nah, it's fine, Wendy," he ruffled her hair and curved his lips. Wendy naturally made him happy. Maybe it was because of her little sister–like air after the Nirvana incident, he felt like he was her caretaker even though she was capable of fending for herself. Dragon Slayers should stick together.

Then, he strolled away from Wendy into Gajeel's direction. He was onstage singing his _"music"_ at the moment about _"his and Lucy's after wedding"_ or whatever. He started to have fuzzy hearing and couldn't focus on it.

His pace tapped a little harder as stupid bolt brain got closer and closer in his little pixie white suit. Before he took another step, readying for a sprint to punch pierce–dump, a body slid in his path.

"Natsu!"

The voice belonged to non–other than a short white–haired and blue, blue eyed Take–Over Mage; Lisanna.

Her hands were on her hips and unlike everyone else, no Nalu clash of fashion were visible on her. Her hair was significantly messier, but he had no means of pointing it out to her after his encounter with Mira. Lisanna's bright blue eyes, one of the signatures of a Strauss, gleamed a weird emotion with scrunched–up eyebrows above.

"Oh hey, Lisanna," he pulled off a little upward tilt on his lips.

She stiffly shifted and constantly struggled to avoid direct eye contact, "So, you and Lucy? I guess I saw it happening.. Ha..haha…"

The girl who he viewed as a childhood companion weakly expressed joy.

He knew it was fake from the moment it caught his eye. On the inside, Lisanna was drowning in tears, and on the outside she pursuited to keep herself together with every piece in place...too bad Lisanna was a terrible liar.

He knitted his own eyebrows, concerned for the sad Strauss and searched into her eyes thoroughly, "Lisanna, are you… fine?"

"Yea! Of course I am...haha," she waved her hands in front of herself and shot for a giggle. It sounded more like a weep for help.

He deeply frowned.

"S-so," she broke from his gaze then went from looking at him and the wall, "You lo–love Lucy?"

When he was about to answer her, he experienced a strange tingle into his back. It felt like a razor–sharp knife digging into his skin. It took a second of thought to realize it was the She–Devil, Mirajane. He gulped tensely, she was glaring into his backside with those demonic–crazed glare. The same one she used on him minutes ago to manipulate him. And she wasn't going to let her Nalu ship dream crash so quickly even if her sister was going down with it.

Natsu swallowed _uncomfortably,_ "I.." He turned from head from left to right uncoordinatedly and leaned close to the ear of the young girl who was shyly excepting or not excepting his answer,

"I love Lucy."

That was how it should've come out anyways.

"Mira's watching us. Let's take this outside."

Lisanna's eye zoomed at him in surprise. She gasped at him for half a second before surveying behind him to see her older sister and then immediately nodding.

The two quietly navigated through the bunches of party–ers and party–ees.

On arriving outside the castle–like guild hall, Lisanna sweated as she waited for Natsu's next line of dialogue.

"Lisanna," he began staring at the suddenly very pretty wizard patiently awaiting him. He swallowed roughly as he tried to find the correct words to present her, "I have something to tell you."

* * *

"Lisanna!" his ten–year old self cried at his friend, "I don't wanna play house! I have to find Igneel right away!"

"But Natsu!~" a younger version of Lisanna whined, tugging his arm which prevented him from taking off, "Gildarts says you have to play with me until he gets back with Mira and Elfman!"

"So what!" he snapped at her turning his shoes to her, impatient with her complaints, "Igneel is out there and I can't waste a _day_ to search for him!"

"What if he's in trouble? What if he's injured? He needs my help now! This can't wait! Igneel's in danger and I'm gonna find him!" he ripped her arm from himself and started to walk away from her.

"I can't play with you, Lisanna. My father's on his deathbed!" he screamed furiously while turning back to face her once more.

Lisanna was on the verge of tears. Her blue eyeballs pecked with droplets of water and her hand ready to shield her face from spilling them. Except he was already too late.

"Li–lisanna!" he whipped himself all the way around and ran back towards his crying companion.

She covered her face and cried through her fingers, "Na–natsu, I, hic, didn't mean to stop you from, hic, fi–finding your dad. Waaaa!"

He wanted to break out bawling himself because he had made from fellow comrade cry. His worry showed through his eyebrows pressing together. It was his fault he made Lisanna cry because he had gotten a bit violent and overdramatic to her, and this was the result.

"I'm sorry, Lisanna," he mumbled softly, scared of making her hate him, "I didn't mean to make you cry. If you want I can stay here and play hopscotch with you."

"N–no, it's okay. I shouldn't have forced you to stay with me. And I wanted to play house, Natsu," she raised her head with the few tears left in her eyes and smiled fragilely, "I guess I just was afraid you'd leave me forever since last time you left; you spent three weeks out of the guild."

"I'm really sorry. I promise I won't ever left like that again," young Natsu spoke lowly in disappointment in himself, turning his attention to his shoes.

"Haha!" Lisanna smiled with the sun and hugged him which in turn shocked him, "It's okay, Natsu, you don't have to worry anymore because you said you'll stay forever! We're family here in Fairy Tail, remember?"

He laughed with her, thankful that she didn't hate him, "Y–yea! Comrades look out for each other!"

He wrapped an arm around her arms that were around his neck, "I won't ever leave you again, Lisanna."

He swore to keep oath to his promise to her.

Yet little did ten–year old Natsu know that his promise would be broke in the future, _not by him,_ but by his beloved Lisanna Strauss would leave him,_ thinking she was dead for two long years,_ in five years.

* * *

Present Natsu returned to setting his back against his tree in a daze; eyes glassy in a far far away sparkle. Too many memories sparked his train of thought to even get a full sentence out.

"Lisanna," he murmured, remembering her leaving him and then suddenly coming back, "That was really mean of you."

He retraced his footsteps from the past two days.

* * *

Natsu two–days ago observed as she stumbled over her words, "Wh–wha?"

He was looking seriously into the Strauss' eye, "You died two years ago and left me, left your brother and sister, and most of all; _Fairy Tail._

"When we were younger, I remember we made a pact to never leave each other, Fairy Tail, ever.

"After you came back, I forgot about it for awhile. I mean, it was burned in my head that you broke the promise when you left.

"But now I think about it; the more I don't feel right about it.

"Lisanna..." he said her name his a whisper as he attempted to explain to her his unorganized and jumbled up thoughts.

"I don't know how you feel, but I don't feel a thing. I heard the gossip buzzing hot inside the guild that I'm dense or I'm just a simple–minded idiot.

"Truth is, I might be, but I don't think so. Lisanna, I'm _numb._ I admire and respect my comrades, but this whole love thing to me is just a block of ice. I don't get why it's there or how to get around it, and, when I touch it; it's cold, icy, unfamiliar, and just_ weird._ It makes my fingers go numb and I don't know how to clash with it.

"Should I break it? Should I leave it be? Should I melt it with my flames? Or should I call up that ice–block himself, _Gray,_ to tell me what to exactly do? I don't know!?" he concluded and ruffled his hair in a mess with the two of his fists.

The four lettered word confused Natsu Dragneel all the way. There he stood at Lisanna's will, begging her to assist him with his dilemmas. He would've asked his favorite Celestial Wizard, but it was out of the question for now.

"Na...tsu," Lisanna let go of the breath that she had held in so long, almost in disappointment, "How should I know your feelings if you don't understand them yourself?"

"B-but," she paused for a mere moment and took a deep breath to prepare herself for _something,_ "How do feel about..um, me?"

"You are Lisanna."

The answer was straight and simple so it naturally came out of his mouth as a first, immediate answer.

She frowned, "How do you feel about Lucy?"

"She's..." he glanced over his shoulder, not wanting to stare straight at Lisanna's soul, reluctant to talk about his partner when he was trying his best to not directly mention her name, "_special,_ uh... I meant, weird."

Lisanna's stare dropped as her mouth gaped open from what he could see from his sideways view, "O–okay."

Their conversation was finished.

He was first to twist his feet, oddly, back into the guild, and he didn't bother to look back at the teary eyed Lisanna Strauss. He rewrote in his mind that she wasn't behind_ him,_ and that she wasn't _crying._ It was no longer his duty to look after her.

On his re–entrance into the building, he saw Juvia (another one heavy clothed in the armor of a Nalu shipper) lit up when she caught him reappearing at the party.

"Natsu–san!" she raced over to him and chipped warmly.

Then she proceeded to grasp his hand into hers, moving them up and down quickly, and sparks shot off her cloudy blue eyes, "Juvia thanks you for taking her love rival! But, secretly Juvia likes the idea of you and Lucy-san together. She also thinks you two are perfect! Almost like her and Gray-sama!"

The hearts in her eyes were undeniable, and Juvia was one person who he thought who had an understanding of love. He had thought she was a little of the odd side when he first met her, but now he saw her as a comrade and had to be with uh…no, it's nothing. Nothing at all..

"Uh yea, Juvia," he turned his head away from her, unsure of what to say to the Water Mage.

"Juvia wants to ask Natsu–san why he isn't with Lucy–san's side? She didn't see you come in when Lucy–san reported back in," Juvia cocked her head while releasing his hands from hers.

"Juvia! Uh… why aren't you with dumb–… Gray, yea, why aren't you with Gray?" he rushed to change the subject. He refused to talk about that _somebody._ He wasn't on speaking terms with her so why should he talk about her in another person's conversation with him?

"Gray–sama was pulled out to have a chat with Master. Oh, now that Juvia thinks about it; Lucy–san and Erza–san were pulled out too," she spoke her thoughts aloud, right hand on her cheek and the other tugging at her Nalu bracelet.

"A talk?" Natsu raised a brow, curious about the scenario.

She looked to her left for a moment then answered him, "Yes, Juvia thinks it concerns about… maybe a_ book?_ She is very vague on details."

"A book?" he questioned a bit aggressively, probably because why would snowcone, a blond, and Erza get a ramble from Gramps about a dumb book? Surely, he could ask Levy or Freed. Ok, maybe the _blond_ in the group too, but… wasn't it odd?

A spark electrified the depths of his brain. _L__ucy_ had said that she needed to discuss with Gramps about him going on missions and his _magic._

His magic was decreasing in its former strength, and it was strange.

"Natsu–san?" Juvia's voice buzzed in his ear as he started to stray away from her.

"You better go see Gray."

He needed to get answers to the questions floating around him.

* * *

Present Natsu sucked up a deep breath and then released it back into the fuming air circling him. A hand ran into his hair and began to absently comb it. The scaly scarf around his neck comforted him alone.

A lone word sang himself to sleep and pure dread; _Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy~_

He wanted to see his Lucy so badly.

* * *

**Author Note's: Sorry if this is deep, but I wanna get into the pure core of what makes Natsu Dragneel tick. So here's the deep, ocean–deep depth his mind can get into. Super deep.**

**But there's something I wanna talk about and it's the Japanese honorifics. Okay, so I really didn't want to use these 'cause I want to stray from sounding too unprofessional, but some of the characters require to use the honorifics. In result, I've made a compromise; I'll only use honorifics if it is really necessary but most of the time I won't. This includes Juvia's character and one of Mira's lines in this. However, if you have noticed, I didn't let Wendy add a honorific to Natsu's name because I didn't find it too important or Lisanna call her siblings like she normally does (I actually got lazy on Lisanna but whatever). Yea, I just wanted to clear that up.**

**Now here I want to REALLY SUPER THANK YOU CUPCAKES FOR REVIEWING/FAVORITING/FOLLOWING THIS STORY. Ohmygoshh, I love you all so much. You all are absolutely _beautiful~_**

**'Kay last thing; next chapter should be due by next Friday or the day after that. My schedule for this story is every week on Fridays or Saturdays (I'll try my best to keep it this way) Yay! I love you all~33 **

**P.S. You can tell I had fun with this chapter.**


	3. The Wimpy Ice Princess

**Author's Note: I got really excited for this chapter and just yess! And this is the more light–hearted chapters of the series starting now!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and its characters But I do own the core parts of this story's plot and the overload of words. :))**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Wimpy Ice Princess**

_Once upon a time there lived a wimpy ice princess. He was in love with the fucking pirate's daughter who stalked him everyday. But he was too scared and wimpy to ask the water–lover out. That bastard should just fucking make-out with Ju–... her already._

Natsu forced his toy plush of Gray to mash faces with his plush of Juvia.

"There, we're done with your stupid scaredy cat ways, princess, and now you can do a hardcore make-out session with your water bride," he mumbled continuing to casually morfe the two plushies together.

Natsu was really bored that day so who could blame him for playing matchmaker with his very top–secret collection of nearly all the guild members in plushie form (even Happy didn't know this). He often burned up Gray's doll (on accident, of course) and always had to get a new one from his very top secret source. This was the new Gray plush that arrived this morning, and he kinda hoped he wouldn't have to get a new one soon.

For now it was kissing Juvia's mini–person.

Happy hadn't come home since last night so he assumed he was sleeping over at Lucy's or Wendy's. Possibly Gajeel's too just to annoy him. Whatever.

The pinked hair boy didn't really want to go find his blue friend anyways. He was too lazy. _Excuses, excuses,_ he shamed himself.

He hadn't eaten anything this morning or last night. Actually lately, he didn't feel hungry at all. Weird.

Then again, ever since he mistakenly slept overnight at the Sola tree singing that _one_ word; he had been feeling tingly. He felt alive, and his heart jumbled up in tangles constantly shifting. He felt off melody.

He even bothered to change out of his super–awesome fashionable clothes into a T–shirt and tan pants. However, his scarf stayed in place around his neck for sure.

What should he do today? His mind thought of the guild first, but no. Maybe Lucy's.. no.

He pulled his own cheek. He couldn't think straight. He threw Gray's and Juvia's plushies at the wall, impatient with himself. Then, he stood up from his seat on the floor and pulled a plank of board on the floor also to reveal a toy chest. He grabbed the number lock on it and rolled the right numbers to open it. _Clink!_ It unlocked, and he cracked the lid out to grab one certain doll; Lucy's.

But, instead he somehow got a hold of Lisanna's. _Smack._ He tossed it over his shoulder causally and continued to scout for his Lucy. It wasn't there.

His eye widened. Why wasn't his Lucy plush in his treasure chest? Did he put it back, hidden away, the last time he messed with it?

The last time he played with the Lucy was last month when he and Lucy got into an argument. After that, he wasn't allowed to see her for a three days, and he got really depressed. He wanted to see Lucy as he spent most of those three days cooped up in his and Happy's little cottage, staring at the doll.

He missed Lucy.

_Stop it, stop it. Lucy doesn't want to see you. She gets below–zero cold whenever she catches a glimpse of you. Stop daydreaming._

He didn't want to stop daydreaming about Lucy coming up to him one day and hugging him, saying she was sorry for her behavior. Then, he'd smile and say it was okay. She would flash one of those famous, celestial smiles of hers and tell him she'd–…

Nope, he wasn't fantasizing about Lucy.

But in reality, last time he was in the guild she…

He hated himself for being hated by Lucy. Plus, his alternative solution stopped fighting with him. He glanced over to the wall opposite of him to see three dolls lying smack–face first on the wooden floor; Lisanna, Juvia, and Gray.

He tiptoed to the other side, careful not to step on one of the random items in the room. When making his way across, he found a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth…

_Choke._ He had accidentally tried to eat the candy with the green wrapper still on. Oops…

He roughly shot the candy outta his throat like a watermelon seed to wherever in the room. His hands rubbed his neck gently, moving his scarf a little ways for more space.

Afterwards, he continued his journey to the three plushies. One sandal here, one sandal there. Before he knew it, he'd successfully completed his mission!

He glanced down at the three little guys before scooping up the Gray one. For a moment, he stared at its little beady black marbles until he violently _slammed_ it into the flooring. Another moment, he was repeatedly stomping it with his right foot. Next moment, a small fire ignited the heel of his sandal and kissed the cotton Gray plush in the gut. The following moment, he had realized too late that the Gray was on fire and had burned to a crisp.

_Shit, that was new too,_ he panicked, running a hand to the back of his neck uncomfortably.

In the place of his poor Gray doll was a neat pile of ashes. Um...

At least his Dragon Slayer Magic could still defrost a cold little Gray to oven cake burnt.

Uh, he wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing… probably a good one.

With his foot, he shoved the remains of the plush off to the side in awkward silence. He had to contact his super–top–secret–supplier to sew him a new one sometime this month.

Sighing, the pink haired boy leaned against the wall, and slowly fell down, down to the floor. He quietly sat there, not thinking about a thing, just staring at the ceiling.

His hand met little Lisanna and ruffled her hair lightly. Three days ago, he left her his tears without his warmth of comfort.

Without breaking from staring at the ceiling, he pushed away Lisanna and pulled miniature Juvia's leg. Three days ago, he had brushed her off on the subject of Lucy Heartfilia, and then instructed her to Gray as he searched for something...

He was looking for answers. Answers from anyone. About his condition, about Lucy, about that eerie feeling he had everywhere he ventured. He wanted answers.

...He was also lonely. In the depths of his denials and constant concern for everyone to think he was okay, he was begging for someone to see through his acting and just slap him across the cheek.

His vision blurred when a memory began to play in his head like a movie in the theaters.

_Three...two...one..._

* * *

The heat in his head burned his ears. His ears stung, and his vision was blurred. Natsu three days ago rubbed his eyes uneasily. He was on his way upstairs, but when he looked up the gang plus Gramps had disappeared. Like ghosts they rubbed themselves into the scenery perfectly, almost as if an artist pressed his thumb to them and blended them into his canvas of colors. The throbbing, pounding, in his insides of his skull beat as fast as his heart. Ba–dump. Ba–-dump, ba–dump, ba–dump, ba–ba–dump.

His heart was wild.

Maybe it was his paranoid, aching sixth sense that recently made him very sensitive and tense. Maybe it was the lost missing pillar in his life; Lucy. Maybe it was the fact he ignored his abandoned duties attached to Lisanna Strauss. Maybe it was Wendy who just accidentally added hot water to his burns and made them sting even more. Maybe it was Juvia's unintentional intent for him to rush his questions head on like he always did. He didn't know. Thinking wasn't his strong suit, but it wasn't his worst. His worst suit was his fears mindlessly wandering in his thoughts, pricking him here and there.

He hated his fear.

Back in Tenrou Island when he fought Gildarts in the S–Class Exam, Gildarts had taught him something very important; fear is not weakness but your limit. Before then, he was constantly reckless and had, of course, no sense of the fear of "losing" in combat. However, it was different out of combat.

He had felt fear before. Igneel, Lisanna, even Lucy Heartfilia. Fairy Tail cored all these ties together.

Even so he still hated fear.

The self–conscious sensation that someone is _watching your every movement_ behind your back that you feel you have to be careful of what you do, and that there's a chance somebody you loved might_ die._

It wasn't something he liked to feel.

Then all of a sudden, his cheek was forcefully jerked back by a smacking sound.

Somebody had slapped him on the cheek. As he robotically told himself to turn his head to his attacker, another hand met the same cheek again.

_Smack._

The entire guild was silent at the first smacking sound they had heard, but after the second a dying dead, dead_ silence_ plagued the once partying members. He saw a shadow rise again, readying for another slap, but then it was caught by someone else's hands.

"Gray, stop."

He moved his view finding himself stare into the eyes of an icy, cold mage with the angriest cast in his eyes. This wasn't the normal angry his fellow rival and friend shared with him; it was his authentic anger held deep within the wizard, the one he only had when the Galuna Island incident had happened or if someone deeply insulted Fairy Tail and his comrades.

The one who had held his wrist from smacking Natsu once more was Erza. Her expression would have been blank if it hadn't been for the slightly emotional hurt glint in her shaking hands.

If this had been on a normal occasion, Natsu would have yelled and starting heating up shit in the guild hall.

Too bad this situation was different.

He clenched his fists. For a moment, he hesitated, but a fist shot into Gray's gut first.

"What the hell!?" It wasn't much of a scream, it was more of a statement twisted into a question that was recited aloud like a dull, lifeless play in an empty theater.

Gray flinched, escaping Erza's grasp, then he cranked into motion hook–punching Natsu's left rib.

Natsu took his other arm and aimed for Gray's face with his knuckles. Gray's face jerked at the gravity of his punch but moved his boot to Natsu's bare sandaled ones, pressing hard on the pinked haired boy's toes.

Natsu yelped while instinctively kneeing Gray in the stomach.

"Gray–sama!" he heard a surprised voice in the crowd. It belonged to Juvia.

A slight shuffle noised in the crowd behind his back, Natsu listened closely even with the stormy drones in his eardrums.

"Juvia, please." Lucy's voice cracked as the crowd shifted more, probably Lucy blocking Juvia's path.

"But–"

Gray threw another punch dead–on his face. Natsu fell backwards and landed roughly on the ground. He glared up at his opponent, "What."

"You asshole, " Gray responded, refusing to meet Natsu's piercing stare. Erza stood behind the scene quietly, absently playing with the ends of her skirt. She was eyeing her left; away from him and Gray. Why wasn't the scarlet monster doing anything?

Natsu's hands propped himself from the ground as he sat, watching Gray. The ice mage was biting his lips, fumbling with words that were not audible.

Words_ animated_ his mouth as Natsu widened at his rival–and–friend's dialogue. The letters formed into sentences as Gray continued to speak quickly, stumbling over his words over and over. The information shocked Natsu. Like how his Lucy told him her instructions. Like how he watched his magic utterly fail on him. Gray kept speaking other language that took Natsu a few more seconds to translate. His ears' tingled. The phrases Gray were saying were becoming less and less distinctable; to the point where Natsu could no longer hear the ice mage's voice.

* * *

Present Natsu sat soundlessly in his and Happy's cottage, leaning his back against the wall. He removed his glued eyes from the plain ceiling. He then glanced at the pile of ashes who can once called Plush Gray.

A word spilled from the Fire Dragon Slayer's tongue; "Asshole."

* * *

His three–day old self shook terrified with absolute dismay.

"If that's that, _nothing_ will ever get better," Gray's voice finally broke the ringing his the pink haired boy's ears.

Natsu forced himself to pull his gaze away from the mage and to the ground, "Asshole."

"I hate you."

"Me too."

Natsu fixed himself from his backward spawn to a slouched criss crossed legs position. The guild held its wordless attitude as he raised his chin up to get a better, more_ direct_ look at Gray.

His freezingly cold friend had the and dipped his chin down to get a better, more _direct_ look at Natsu.

When their matching stale obsidian irises met, they stared at each other absently with a bit of a powerful, intensive sort of air. It was kind of _poisonous._

Gray was first to lose their little completion, prying his eyes from pyro–jacked to the floor.

Natsu was next to back down, accepting his victory, as he stood up from his seat on the same floor, focusing his vision on the guild's entrance and exit.

He was on his way out of the crowd and out of the guild before he heard his fellow ice princess say one last phrase, "Next time I see you, Natsu, I ain't gotta fight back."

Natsu froze, glazed with frost by the ice wizard's remark before finally burning up his secret dread, treading his sandals past Fairy Tail's doors.

Murmurs of concern hasted guild members behind him; one voice stood out to him _especially._

"Gray–sama, please don't be hard on Natsu–san. She understands that you two may not get along but that was not very kind."

That voice belonged to Juvia. Even if he and Juvia never spoke on too,_ too_ personal terms, he was a bit surprise she defended him in spite of how she platonically admire her_ "Gray–sama"._

* * *

_Even as a pirate's daughter, she had fair judgement with everyone she met._

_When her beloved ice princess fought against an injured dragon who along with many cuts, had lost a wing, she had found it unfair to the beast on how the princess scavenged for the hurt and sought them off. As his admirer, she urged to scold him, wanting him to be the best of himself as he was capable of, which meant no pre–wounded dragon murdering._

_The pirate's daughter had tried to interfere before but the dragon's previous keeper, who was also a constellation counter, had been there and stopped her. The constellation counter said she mustn't wedge in between the dragon's and ice princess' brawl because it was a rivalry that must be sought out with violence and not words._

_The ocean spawn was disappointed but still concern for both of two's safeties. After the fight, ending in the ice princess' defeat, the dragon dragged itself pitifully into its cave as the pirate's daughter raced over to her princess and smacked him. She defended the dragon if no one else did, including his previous keeper. She argued as the icy princess stared at his toes emotionless._

_Then the blue haired girl's tone softened as she wrapped her arms around the boy in an embrace. His eyes shot out in shock as the girl whispered in his ear sweetly. The boy flushed at her sympathetic way with words and mumbled something undetectable. The pirate's daughter smiled like sunshine out of rain._

_The dragon's previous keeper, inspired by the two's performance, went on her way after the dragon, hoping she could mend her bond with the beast who was actually only a boy. A scared boy who was scared to lose anyone else in his life. The boy whose name was Na–..._

Wha?~ The dragon was totally not him. And Gray wasn't the ice princess, Juvia's not a pirate's daughter, and Lucy couldn't be the dragon's previous keeper and a constellation counter.

Present Natsu rubbed his chin with his hand and laughed, nervously. And he was _definitely_ not writing a fanfic in the back of his mind. Nope, never. Why would you ever think he did?

Guilty as charged, Natsu. Guilty as charged.

The boy finally rose from his little sitting spot on the floor and grabbed his Juvia and Lisanna dolls, throwing them back into their secret hiding place. After hiding the evidence, or bodies, he left his shared tiny cottage to go eat. He wasn't that hungry to be honest, but he had to ingest something edible at _some_ point.

A family–owned restaurant popped into his head as he strolled back into Magnolia; Gatsby's Grand, Grand Steakhouse. He had went there a few times with Lucy and Happy before, and it was, indeed, a grand, grand place.

The thought of Lucy and Happy singed his chest a bit. He brushed it off. It was nothing as of now. The whole thing would be over with soon so why moan and groan about it? At least, he hoped it would.

The story being told in his head sang on.

_When the constellation counter found the dragon deep within its depths of his cave, she broke out in tears and opened her arms wide open to her. The dragon–, no, the boy smiled weakly and cherished the girl's sudden clear of heart. He loved her and that was that. Whenever he saw her, a jumble of feelings jumped inside of him. She made him happy and he had the same effect to her. Mutual ties. The same went for the ice princess and the pirate's daughter. Those two had feelings that were undeniable to each other, even if the ice princess tried to avoid the subject as much as he could. They were all held mutual ties with each other._

Natsu giggled in the giddiness in his insides. The story was rushing him with happy_–happy_ emotions. He liked a good, straight–ward story. Fairy tales were his type of swing.

_The dragon boy dashed into the arms of his beloved star–counter. The constellation counter smiled graciously with stars and made the boy's heart neatly melt. He laughed in absolute joy. They were together, not apart. He wanted to never be separated from her. He refused to lose her. Never again. He was tied to her, and as selfish as he was, if she didn't fall for him; he would shove her hard into the escapades of confusion and misunderstood feeling until she finally accepts them with open arms. Open arms like she did now. The laughter and smiles were straight–out obvious in the air around them. They had this effect of sunshine and light–heartedness whenever they met that spread to the people around them. It couldn't be more clear than it was now_.

He smiled widely as he started to walk down the familiar streets of the town. The passer–byers near him could feel the warmth in his expression. He was happy. It was going to get better. Gray was wrong. Even without his magic he could move on. As a wizard or not, his friends were around him. After a stormy thunderstorm the sun always _had_ to come out. It was absolute law.

He was growing–_up._ The sun was shining and the stars were guiding him. Gray was dumb so what did he know? Just because of the uncontrolled wavelengths of his magic didn't mean he couldn't attempt to tame the monstrous beat deep, deep within him. The shadows always had to be there even if there is light. It was a philosopher's truth.

He was a great wizard, raised by the one and only Flame Dragon King, Igneel. Nothing was going to stop_ his_ happy ending. He was going to fight for his victory and _win._

So who cares if they say it's impossible? Fairy Tail wizards _do_ the impossible. They _are_ the definition of the impossible.

Every second, his grin was getting wider and brighter. Fate was shining his way. He should stop crying and start to begin living his gold–enclosed dreams. The wishful white dandelions were speaking to him. He was running on the celestial bridge to where his fantasies are going to transform into a reality.

He was really going to see the day where Lucy smiles to him again.

_Back to where the ice princess and the pirate's daughter stood, the to–be lady snow cone murmured something in low tone. The pirate's daughter tilted her head, not quite hearing her friend's phrase. He mumbled again, refusing to meet her dazzling eye. She asked again for him to repeat. He spoke again in an untranslatable volume._

_The girl asked again, but this time she was answered with a loud scream. The ice pop yelled and let everything on his mind slip. The pirate's daughter's expression stood still with shock then fangirling happiness. He was admitting his feelings finally. The feelings that he held the same as hers. He was in love with her. The water–lover nearly squealed before faintly dramatically. The blushing bright red snowboy caught her by her back as she immediately snapped awake with hearts traced in her eyes. He was flustered red in embarrassment and tossed his focus away from her. She giggled, still squealing in joy that her lone goal was a success._

_The cold mage worded quietly that he loved her again as she tackled him into a tight hug. Then the boy hollered to be let free and the girl laughed with sunlight. Even as he called desperately for help, he still felt the same toward her, just that she was accidentally choking him, and he really needed some oxygen._

Present Natsu bursted into laughter, unable to hold in his cheerfulness. He held his stomach, pouring with giggles of delight. Although he received some strange glances from strangers close by him, he didn't care. He was too happy to notice them watching. He was chirpy and content, like he was dancing on clouds high in the sky. No, he wasn't _optimistic,_ he knew, for sure, of the coming future and was ready for its upbeat colors. His happy ending was just going through the mailing process.

And, yes, he shipped Gruvia.

* * *

**Author's Note: HERE WE ARE AT NATSU'S FIRST SELF–CONCLUSION! But that doesn't mean this story is finished yet, no no. Seems today's update was on its latest date. Sorry guys I was really busy yesterday. Same schedule for the next chapter called; Chapter 4: Erza Sighlet!**

**Yup. Thanks guys for reading!**

**And remember to _review!_ I always want to see you guys' opinions on the recent chapters!**


	4. Erza Sighlet

**Chapter 4: Erza Sighlet**

That chef should _really_ stop recording him. It was starting to get creepy.

At Gatsby's Grand, Grand Steakhouse, the boy with girly pink hair sat in a booth by himself.

The restaurant's chef had ripped out a lacrimal video recorder and was literally bawling out his eyes in pure joy; Natsu was using the forks and knife given to him to eat in a proper, _neat_ manner.

The boy cut his steak easily and pounded his fork into it before putting it in his mouth. He glanced to his left as the chief gagged lightly saying, "The flame–eating beast is finally, _hic,_ becoming civilized. Oh my goodness!~"

Natsu didn't get why the guy was crying so hysterically. Oh well, it still didn't ruin his merry mood.

After he finished swallowing, he leaned over to the man and asked awkwardly, "Uh, why ya being so teary? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, sir," the chef wiped his eyes quickly before replying, "You usually come here with the,_ hic,_ pretty blond girl and blue,_ hic,_ cat. You ate like a monster and got food everywhere! It was good business, but a pain to clean up. B–but now, you eat like,_ hic,_ a gentleman!"

"Uh… okay?"

"YOU ARE,_ hic,_ A GENTLEMANNN!"

"You sound like Elfman, but with gentle–"

"GENTLLEEEMMMAANNN!"

"..."

Natsu speedily stuffed the rest of his meal down his throat and standing up from his seat, laying some jewels on the table, "I'm just gonna pay right here. Um, keep the change."

Pink haired Natsu rushed to get out of the building before the moans of the dying chef crawl after him. Dude, some people were _really_ scary…

Like Erza.

Please don't tell Erza that.

He threw his hands back behind his neck and slowed his walking. Even with his answer, it was only half–way done. His head spun into an anamnesis. One that made him want to run in hide. Where? He didn't know either.

* * *

His three–day old self forced himself to take one step after another away from the guild. That simple step–to–step process flipped into a paced jog, then a full out sprint.

What is happening to him? Nobody was telling him anything!

He halted as he hesitated to take another step. Should he go back and–

"Natsu!"

He turned around to where the familiar, firm, and feminine voice recited from. A redhead and Heart Klutz armor only meant one person, Erza Scarlet.

"Er–erza!" he stuttered, having terrifying memories including the scarlet warrior returned and haunted him.

"Natsu," she repeated again, coming close to him in her quick jog, before stopping leaving a good gap between them, "I need to speak with you."

"Y–yea?" Whatever she wanted, it could not be something good.

Erza opened her mouth to speak, but no words slipped into his ears. She stood there stunned for a moment until her expression suddenly cringed. The kind of cringe when you're about to cry. When he was about to comfort her, she maneuvered her eyes to her right at the ground. Then she did something, not exactly rare for her, but odd for the moment; she sighed.

* * *

His present self snickered at a thoughtful pun he'd thought of on the spot.

Erza _Sigh_let.

He chuckled cheerfully. Oh, he shouldn't be laughing about that. This was a depressing memory for him, not a comedic one.

Erza_ Sigh_let. He let a giggle out from his lips.

He could be a comedian, ya know?

* * *

What the fuck, Erza? Natsu of three–days ago frowned in awe, a knit at his eyebrows expressed his confusion. He decided to hint at her to say what she wanted to say, "Uh, Erza?"

"Oh Natsu!" she snapped from her staring contest with the ground, "You should… you should go to bed and eats tons of vegetables!"

He could see her eyes spin in complete distress, unsure of what to do and panicking.

"If you boil the vegetables in sewer water, it can make it very tasty! No, maybe it's, uh, milk! Boil your veggies in milk while singing to Veggie Tales, yea!"

"Erza," he intercepted her as she gawked at him as his tone ployed to serious, "Why did Gramps talk to you, Gray, and Lucy?"

His sudden poised attitude smoked to his fiery one. He couldn't quite remember the words he shouted to his fellow childhood friend (who he rarely scolded because... ha…). His words were slurred in confusion and desperation. The movement of his arms and his hurt expression told her things that could not be fully explained through words. He didn't know what to say to her, but to tell her his vaulted feelings. Well, not all his feelings and yet most. He wasn't able to keep up with his pretending at this point and had to let it out on_ somebody…_ He would have preferred it to be Lucy, too...

His little rant was finished as he huffed in retaliation. His shoulders slumped and his eyes nearly bloodshot. He was mentally exhausted, and the Titania just pursed her lips.

Her eyes said everything that needed to be said.

After the Tower of Heaven incident, he felt like he understood the intentions of Erza Scarlet. She was not strict because she wanted to, but because she wanted to make her comrades the best they could be by guiding them in the correct direction. She could go over the top crazy more than often, and that was a perfect characteristic Fairy Tail was known for. For being… insane. For being completely an outrageous guild, going beyond and beyond limitless set of minds, the source of all mad mayhem, probably a mentally psycho hospital–orphanage, and maybe… straightforward quirky.

Erza was the type of person to get angry at you for "supposedly" eating her strawberry cake with your best friend then forgive you after a _harsh_ punishment and lecture. Not that he knew of course.

"Natsu, I believe the answer is something not within your reach until you've proven yourself."

…

Huh? What did she just say? No! She was suppose to give him a straight–out answer, not this! No more odd riddles. First Lucy was telling him he should stopping going on mission and seeing her for a time, Gray who told him that he wasn't going to fight him next time at they met, and Erza who just… JUST NO.

"Alright."

Wait! He did not mean to say that! The words gritted from his teeth naturally. His_ body_ was betraying him. His irises watched in total confusion as the bloody haired knight twisted her ankles and headed back to the guild.

"Erza! Wait!" These were the words he urged to say to her, reaching for her shoulder with his hand. Instead, he found himself standing still with this dumb face, not move one bit.

He couldn't do anything.

* * *

Present Natsu shook his head, disappointed. He had finally make up his plans for today. He was going on a date… A date with the fucking library.

Usually, he spent time there watching Lucy scribble words down on paper and read from book to book. Also, every month he visited there with Gajeel to help Levy move some of her big–ass collection into the matching, stale paper storage building. He rarely ever strolled into the library on his own accord, well, if you didn't count returning books for Lucy.

Books were silly, and that was Natsu's entire opinion on them.

Don't you dare tell Levy that. She'd nag him about it for sure.

The library of Magnolia was about a block from where he stood. If he ran, he'd get there in no time. Pumping his legs, he flew off into a sprint to the next block. The surroundings around him blurred before he was able to slide in front of Magnolia's book station._ Centaur Golden_ was engraved above the doors in old bronze font

He breathed through his teeth as he stepped up the short flight of stairs to open the door's handle. On entering the building, it took him a second to whiff the aged, wood–paper smell lingering in the air. Levy's and hardheaded Gajeel's favorite candle scent.

Coming here alone was weird for him, even the librarian raised a brow before returning to her fountain pen and large stack of papers. At first, he wasn't sure where to start looking.

An idea introduced itself to the labyrinth of his mind. Of course! Lucy had explained this to him once, though he wasn't really listening in that close. He moved to the section of the area where the smarty–smart books where or in Levy's wordings, nonfiction.

He was searching for the letter D. His finger tracing each of the spine's of the books until he reached the letter he was scouting for. He sucked his breath in then out before carefully sorting out the books for the next letter he was isolating, R.

He stared as he found his jackpot. Choosing the thickest book in his tastes, he pulled it from the shelf and carried it over to an empty work desk near by.

He sat down and laid the book on its back, in front of him. A red leather cover shelled it as solid white letters smirked at him imtiatingly. _Dragon's Recorded History of X776._

Huh? This was a year before Igneel had vanished. Was this? No, he couldn't afford to get his hopes up, following in his disappoint. But what if?

What if.

How come he never noticed this book before? Then again, he never went researching in the library for any leads. He'd thought the information was more found by word of mouth then printed on paper. Maybe he was wrong about that.

But hadn't Lucy looked into this for him and told him she'd come up empty–handed. Even Levy had popped her head into the subject, possibly in curiosity for Gajeel, and discovered nothing of value. So why now?

Why now.

This book might be filled with the answers he'd been looking for. If not, a clue. This was his light of hope after the Eclipse incident. This was his shining star to guide him to Igneel.

Igneel. He was going to meet Igneel again.

The book was right before him, so why hadn't he opened it yet? His hand reached out and turned the front cover over to its other side.

* * *

Three–days ago, his past self stood motionless on the pavement. After his Heart Klutz armored friend was out of sight, his knees trembled, and he found himself on the rocked floor. Even he didn't understand his own actions.

Unsure of what to busy himself with, he leaned back as his back was pressed against a stone ground. His eyes met the sky as the sky met his eyes. Blue is what he could call it, maybe a fluff of white cotton here and over there.

He felt numb in emotion–defying medicine.

After the job with Luce and Happy, he had been feeling awfully _strange_. Like his breathing and his motions were uncoordinated and stiff. His senses' unflawed quality now felt clogged and blocked out. His vision blurred and disfocused now and then. His hearing was dulled and a soft ringing droned at points. His tongue didn't cling with that signature spicy taste that was always in his mouth. His sharp smelling had now been reduced to one of a bloodhound with a bad, stuffy nose. The impacts from Gray were hurting usually more than they do as of now. The throbbing on his cheek and stomach wouldn't vanish. A bruise or two would be appearing soon enough.

He pushed himself up, leading into him standing on his two feet. Home was where he should head back to. In a couple of more hours, the sky would shift to a darker and darker shade. He hoped he won't be wandering around that hour with all this dust drifting close to him.

In his head, he made a simple schedule for himself; go to Lucy's–, no, head back to his and Happy's cottage to roll in the hard mattress that he'd claimed as his. Sleep helped him with his dilemmas he didn't understand.

In, no later than one hour, you'll find him curled up in his bed fast asleep. In, no later than twenty minutes, you'll find him arriving at his current homing residence and opening the always unlocked front door. In, no later than five minutes, you'll find him running through the crowded streets of Magnolia to an isolated hilltop, wheezing for air as he rejected his body's begging for him to pause. In, no later than three seconds, you'll find him glancing left and right, recollecting the last of his thoughts. In, no later than exactly zero seconds, you'll see the famous Natsu Dragneel screaming out all his blazing red emotions at the pale indigo sky,_ alone._

* * *

What he saw what he saw, his mouth gaped open, bewildered.

The book was handwritten in crummy, scrunched cursive. The pen ink had obviously exploded a bit through out the book, and on page one, the corners were dried in coarse black liquid. His eyes skimmed the quickly written and passionate words on the first page. He read it again _and again._ Only on the sixth time, he was able to ingest the information properly down his throat.

The book's horribly scribbled words were a start.

He flipped the page and read the jumbles of metaphors he didn't understand. The handwriting seemed to get harder to decipher the farther he read on. His fingers crinkled the sides of the page. He reread and back tracked from page one to two about ten more times.

This was so frustrating.

He grabbed a lock of his pink hair and pulled it roughly. Think!

Breathing harshly, he began whispering aloud to himself the first page of the book, trying to grasp the mad, _mad_ gibberish to something more suitable for him, "Day Before the Dragon's King Festival; July 6, X776: This diary is not something that must be shared by many, or by anyone. Keep the book a secret and pass it on to the next. Be careful of what you tell, and never say aloud of anything of the events, people, or the book itself that is recorded here. Do not trust anyone.

"If you are reading this now and the permanent, dark stain on the cloth is not yet erased; learn and destroy what is said. Do** no** harm. Cease the core of evil from this world, and do no harm. I repeat, do no harm."

Natsu paused as the last three words he'd read twirled in his thoughts. _Do no harm._ What does it mean? Do no harm to what? And what permanent and dark stain on a cloth? Where's the cloth?

Ignoring his unanswered questions, he swallowed and recited softly from where he left off, "Beware of timeskips."

He coughed, the seven year timeskip at Tenrou Island.

"That wrenched mage won't stop his experiments. Now the time has come again. Kill. Kill. Kill. He should've been asleep. Why is he angry now?

"The dragons.

"The dragons did it again with their Civil War. One side; unity. The other; separation.

"The dragons are killing themselves off the face of the earth.

"As their King and that impulsive idiot go face to face on trying to get to E.N.D. first. One to destroy and the other to cease. Then there are the mistakes. They're too young to understand now. Even if they do find out the truth, it's nothing to applause to. It's all death, death, and walking _skeletons._

"Altas Flame–"

Wait, Altas Flame?_ The_ Altas FLame? That one dragon he teamed up with 'cause that flame was the BFFL of Igneel, and Natsu was son of the all mighty, Igneel?

How come he didn't notice this before?

After he coughed to ready his voice, the words naturally spelled on his tongue, "Atlas Flame and his silly obsession with the House of the Sun was years back, but even so his importance as a guardian makes him a member. Burn in the flames of hell. Timeskip.

"Today is the day where we all die.

"Kikav, Justinian, Bastille, and Anya. Those four and myself are all ready to be slayed of a martyr's death if necessary. We all practice the sacred art of–"

The rest of the letters on the page were smeared with black ink, dried rough and uneven. He clenched his teeth as he flipped to the second page and read on from there, "The army is ready for retaliation, but I highly doubt they'll make it through the first wall. The council is so stupid sometimes. Blood. I think this is all blood.

"The castle is where the main battle games begin. The tower is where the so–fair princess is being trapped. I still hate the royal family. For the good of Fiore, my ass!

"Anya says I should take my medicine soon. Silly Anya, I don't NEED medicine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Smile!

"Kikav is tending to her wounds. She'd lost a limb to that demon's poison. Justinian is missing in action. Bastille is still the most disgraceful being ever born. I would've murdered him years ago if he wasn't such an significant pawn, and that he's my brother. My_ only_ brother.

"We are at war. We fight for the** sane** of Earthland. Not for the army. Not for the dragons. Not for the council. Not for the people. Not for us. For sanity. Something to keep me thriving.

"Haha. I'm getting off topic. It's ten A.M. The soldiers are restless and have more casualties than us. I still haven't located him. My knife is sharper than usually and is smiling at me.

"I think it wants a go."

Natsu tilted his head, unsure of what to think. This line was one of the strangest to him out of all he'd read so far. He shrugged and moved on, "That ice dragon had reported in that the bzzt has been found. He has one of those with him. He was one of the unity guys.

"I told him to the next station, and he said if I could take care of his kid.

"I agreed, reluctantly. I didn't want to be babysitting this one, but I've got no choice if he's holding one of our operatives back. The kid just stared real big at me, and I smirked. Haha.

"The E.N.D. magic has many properties and is the one number reason why it should be thrown off the face of Earthland. If it's not destroyed now or in the future, someone may be searching for it. Kill. Kill. Kill.

"I remember that kid so vividly that it's starting to. I remember how he fell. I remember how it was my fault. I remember. I remember. I. I should take my medicine now.

"Now that we've lost trust with one of our operatives, the–"

Once again, the black ink shielded the next letters from being seen. Natsu eagerly prepared himself to read the next page. He was finally beginning to _understand._

_Insanity and sanity._ He had to understand the between of it before he could understand the red leathered book's encoded messages. Words and phrases spun in his head. _Wisdom and knowledge._ Two traits he lacked in. Two he had to make up for with _kindness and overprotectiveness._

He breathed out as he slammed the book shut. He picked it up and protectively slid it under his arm. Walking from the now empty table to the librarian's desk, he numbly stared at her and just simply stated, "I'd like to check out this book, please."

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm sorry if this is short or what. I'm kinda in a rush, but the plot is going deeper and deeper into the core of Natsu Dragneel!**

**Guys, thank you again for support this in any way that you do! I love you all!**

**And what's with the strange red leathered book? Who is Kikav, Justinian, Bastille, and Anya? What's with Team Natsu, excluding Natsu? Why does E.N.D. sound so familiar? Who exactly is the author of _Dragon's Recorded History of X776,_ and why is he so secretive and mysterious? Why are some of the pages smeared with ink at the most vital parts?**

**Find out next week with Chapter 5: Poisonous Air Can Kill Wendy!**

**Always remember to_ review!_ I want to know want you think about a recent chapter!**


	5. Poisonous Air Can Kill Wendy!

**Author's Note, fuck yeah: Sorry, for the late update. I wasn't even near computer the last two days, and suddenly when I have Fall Break, everyone decides to eat up my newly opened free time. But this is a long chapter, and I hope that makes it up to you guys. End of the mini–arc/introductory arc and onto our very first arc! Yeah! **

**Also, don't be surprised if this coming Friday/Saturday's update doesn't come. Pokemon Y and school distract me.**

**Love ya.**

**DISCLAIMER: I no own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. He own it all.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Poisonous Air Can Kill Wendy!**

Wendy choked hysterically.

The famous fire dragon wizard had attempted to come to her rescue but couldn't. He was too paralyzed by fear.

So in terror, he watched quietly as the young girl who was like his little_ sister_ gagged, holding her throat. He didn't know what to think at that moment. Actually, he couldn't think. He was stuck in a loop as he silently waited for the noise to stop.

He wasn't sure if it ever did.

For the very first time to Natsu, he felt hot and sweaty. His eyes shot open as he awoke from his dream, his nightmare. He threw in blankets off and tried to balled up back to sleep. It didn't work.

His breathing was unevened again. Like what his nightmare reflected, Wendy couldn't breathe. Now he couldn't breathe. It might have been superstition, but his instincts refused to lie.

Two–days ago Natsu sat up in his bed and struggled to find the right pace for his breathing. In. In. Out… In. Out. Out. In. Out. In. In. Out. Out. Out.

His hands fumbled to his cheeks, warming with heat.

He wanted to see Lucy.

* * *

Natsu whistled as he exited the library, the precious red book in hand. It had took a while to convince the librarian to let him check out the book. Probably a solid hour.

First, she had this doubtful, distrustful look at him and told him that he'd burn it (She possibly knew from her experiences telling him off when eavesdropping on his conversations). Next, she said he didn't have a library card so he spent like thirty minutes and about one thousand jewels to get the thing. After that she checked out the book for him, but when she handed it back to him; she refused to let it go! It took a lot of gentle tugging and pulling for him to get back the book and not accidentally rip it. Plus let's face it, he had a minor habit of destroy things, mostly unconsciously.

That librarian really did not trust him.

He flipped the library card in his other hand. On one side had a golden shaded silhouette of a house body and the body of a human up attached, like a centaur, with a side–view. It reminded him of one of Lucy's keys, Sagittarius. It had its hooves trampled together and the human part's the right arm was pressing against were the forehead was. One detail made Natsu narrow his eyes, there was a distinctive arrow going through where the horseman's human part met its horse counterpart.

...Huh?

He shook his head. It had to be nothing at all.

He turned the card to its other side and stared at the red stamp over his name scribbled in neat handwriting. **SCABROUS.** The bloody inked stamp had only eight letters, and that just made him want to chew it up then spew it onto the sidewalk in irritation.

Why did it say scabrous? He remembered Lucy's library card, and it was just stamped with the word "AUTHORIZED" whatever that word meant. Unless the librarian just switched stamps or something.

He slipped the card into his pocket and continued his whistling marathon. On the next block, he spotted a familiar blue headed wizard. That was awfully convenient. The girl stood across the street directly from him.

Natsu waved his hand as the girl's head perked up, her attention on him. She waved back obediently and awkwardly. He then made the gesture for her to come over. The girl's blue hair nodded as she made her way to him.

"Natsu!" Levy called out to him, suddenly racing over to him with a book hugging her chest.

The Solid Script Mage glanced at him from head to toe then asked him curiously, "You changed your outfit. I thought it was such a hard decision to have a variety of outfits everyday that you just decided to use the same one?"

He shrugged, "Change of pace. The other one just doesn't feel comfy to me today."

She giggled, "Oh Natsu, Lu–chan's gotta go–" Levy cut off the rest of her sentence as she realized something and coughed into her hand, politely. When Levy mentioned that certain someone's name, he suddenly found interest in the sewer cap to his right.

"Oh I meant, Loki is going to love your new outfit. He's gone crazy over the fact you wear the same, sweaty clothes everyday," she covered up her mistake with extreme speed.

"Gee, Loki's picky," he smiled at her, now he just had to sweeten up the mood before asking her a favor. Man, it was hard to butter up someone with kindness. How the fuck did Lucy do it with her sex appeal tricks again?

No Lucy thoughts, Natsu.

"Gajeel's been bugging me to go shopping with him for some new clothes," Levy's eyes sparkled with eagerness, "He says he has a hard time picking a good outfit for himself. Juvia usually helps him with that kind of stuff, but she's got some business chaining her down."

The girl laughed with a sense of mischief, "That dumbbell should have never trusted me with this kind of responsibly. I'm going to screw up his fashion on purpose. It'll be hilarious!"

Natsu snickered, Levy was a genius at silly, almost not harmless pranks.

"Best idea! That's payback to everything that ironbutt gave me ever since we met!" Natsu high–fived Levy as he said this, his eyes mirroring her prankster glitter.

"I'll make sure to get pictures and give you a whole copy of his new modeling album picture book!" she laughed even harder with a demonic air. He grinned in excitement. Even with her brainworm–ish ways, Levy was a freaking party animal.

"Oh Levy!" he remembered his actual intention of talking to her as he hid the book in his hand behind his back, "Well… I'm reading this book and–"

"Natsu's reading a book!?" a shout from Levy intercepted him, shock dripping from her expression, "No way! Natsu doesn't read literature!"

"SHADDUP, LEVY, I'M TRYING TO ASK YOU SOMETHING ABOUT THIS BOOK I'M READING! AND I SO READ LITERATURE!" he howled at her with imaginary fire erupting in the background and his arms dancing above his head, the book in one hand.

Levy shook one of her free hands tensely with a rude, doubtful expression, "Of course, Natsu. Go on, my little reading monster."

He sighed heavily, shoulders slumping, "Yea so, uh… It talks about a permanent, dark stain on a cloth and how it should be erased. Then, it repeats how that you should 'Do no harm'. But there's this other phrase about 'death, death, and walking skeletons'. Then this one part about blood, how it's all blood. Next, it words that the main character says, 'I don't need medicine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Smile!' After that, it says stuff about sanity, and how it keep the main character, I don't know, thriving? There's this other weird part on how it speaks about a knife and how it wants a go, and–"

"Natsu!" Levy dragged him back from his rambling, "I can't explain to you everything you say since I don't even know the story you're talking about, but I'll try my best. Just don't go talking on and on. I think Lu–chan is rubbing off on you."

The Fire Dragon just stuck his tongue at her immaturely as she face–palmed herself.

"Just shut up so I can decipher these things into a language, even a simple mind like you can understand," the blue haired girl instructed him, pointing a finger at him like a dog and its master did while reviewing commands… Woof.

"A permanent, dark mark right?" she carefully observed him as he viciously nodded his head, while for her translation to come through, "It probably means a deep evil that has stained history, or in other words; a famous bad, bad villain. Then the following part means that the villain has got to be defeated,_ beat up,_ I meant."

Levy scratched her head, deep in thought, as she recited more of her translation, "Do no harm means that you shouldn't do anything at all if it's repeated that much. _That it's dangerous._ Death, death, and walking skeletons are the things probably happening to the main protagonist. One character died, another died, and someone from their past reappeared whom the protagonist thought was dead. Or it can also translate to that the situation is just a gigantic graveyard for everyone."

She paused, meeting his eye before continuing on, "Blood and this is all blood is just that a mass murder or a war is going on, and it's just pointless. The medicine part converts to that the main protagonist has mental issues, or he or she doesn't need sympathy and just tries to convince somebody that they are okay. Sanity and thriving turns to be that the main protagonist is clinging onto his 'sanity' or common sense, and it's what keeps he or she from killing themselves."

Levy heaves out air, exhausted from speaking so fast, "Then the knife segment is just concluding that the main person or whatever wants to fight or kill someone."

The pair remained silent for only a few second before Natsu finally spoke up, "And what does _scabrous_ mean?"

"Oh, that's easy. It just means something is rough or 'covered in scabs'," Levy grinned, catching the right breathing pace then pushed up on her tippy–toes to pat Natsu's head, "You're growing into a smart child. Finally, you're learning the importance of reading, not burning, books!"

"Uh, whatever makes you happy, Levy," he gave her a half–smile.

"Bye, Natsu! It was nice seeing you, but I've got to go back to my dorm to organize some books!" the blue headed girl started to walk from him, waving her hand back and forth like how he first caught her attention.

"See ya, Levy!" he yelled, returning her gesture, while she became smaller and smaller before disappearing around a corner stilling waving.

Levy was a smart–cookie. _Thank you for your services, Levy McGarden,_ he saluted in the direction she left with perfect posture.

He whistled merrily, heading in a certain direction. Now that he had a better understanding of his precious book, he get some real work done. Now where was he?

Two–days ago Natsu heard a voice call to him from behind the door. It creaked opened a bit as a familiar blue cat came into view.

* * *

"Natsu, are you okay?" Happy rubbed his eye, the other staring at him in concern.

"Peachy," Natsu rolled off the bed and wiped his forehead, still dazed from the nightmare. He stumbled to his little pal and knelt down to him, "I've just got some uncomfortableness from that dumb old, hard mattress."

Happy giggled as Natsu pointed to the mass of mess he called a bed, "Lucy's bed is the softest in the world. You're just not used to your rock–solid one 'cause you've been sleeping in Lucy's."

"Yup," he grazed a smirk, ruffling his exceed's head and walking past him out the door, "So you wanna go see Lucy?"

Happy jumped up in the air, activating his Aera Magic, shouting happily, "Aye, sir!"

* * *

Natsu of the past climbed into Luce's window like the motherfucking cool ninja he was, sliding the window up and rolling on the carpet. Happy followed in suit, naturally, and first to whisper quite loudly to his best friend.

"So where do you think Lucy is?"

"I think she's still asleep. She's such a heavy sleeper even Elfman's singing couldn't wake her up."

"Woah! Lucy should enter a contest for world's heaviest sleeper. Actually, she might win 'cause she's both heavy in weight and in sleep."

"SHUT UP, YOU TWO!" Lucy's voice echoed, after Happy's, from the bathroom. A Lucy with a toothbrush and toothpaste in her mouth arrived to the scene on cue. An angry vein was visible to both Happy and Natsu as they scrambled to hide from her.

"Me and Natsu aren't here sneaking into your house right now. Uh–uh!" Happy panicked, not wanting to get Lucy–kicked out the window.

As Lucy Heartfilia readied for a kick by pulling by her leg back, aiming for the defenseless Natsu spawned on the floor, she halted and relaxed her position. Her face softened from its original angry expression while her body stepped away.

She turned her torso and only said through the toothpaste in her mouth, "Natsu, go home. I told you we're not seeing each right now."

...Oh. He had forgotten. He just wanted to see her as badly that the memory just kind of slipped his mind. The floor had this little twinkle that forced him to direct his focus on it. He so wasn't trying to avoiding this awkward, awkward situation.

A minute later of him and Happy quietly sitting on the carpet, Lucy once again emerged from the bathroom with her hair done and her normal clothes on. She eyed them for a moment before to the door. Her stammering over words were clear crystal as the pink tint on Natsu's and her's cheeks, "Co–come on. Let's just go to the guild already."

Happy recovered first from their silence and cheerfully replied, "Aye, sir!"

* * *

Lucy's words weren't exactly cold, more of distant now that present Natsu thought about it. It was more of like a worried, mother–like tone. One that showed she still cared.

He swung his arms back and forth, still strolling to his destination, but now in a more intense thinking session.

* * *

The knit in past Natsu's eyebrows were caught in the corner of Lucy's eye.

"You too, Natsu," she mumbled so low that he almost didn't hear her.

"Ye–yea."

He picked himself up from the floor and pursed after Lucy's and Happy's lead out of Lucy's apartment. The trip from Lucy's residence to the guild hall of Fairy Tail was hushed and troublesome in its tight personality. Lucy walked in front, chatting lively with Happy as Natsu tailed up on the back. Now and then, Happy would try to include Natsu in the conversation, temporarily forgetting that for some reason his roommate and Lucy weren't on speaking terms, then the air grew stale as Natsu answered him forcefully. Silence counted their seconds of restrainment of making noise before Happy stomped on it with a silly remark and leading to Lucy replying to him.

Then, the process repeated a few times through before they passed into the guild hall's front doors.

The guild stormed over with pale absolute stillness, staring over at the scene of Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, and Happy. Lucy slid into her usual seat at the bar while Mirajane, behind the counter, smiled and handed her a drink. Natsu noticed a familiar black hair, and a rush of fire sparked in his veins.

"GRAY!" he pounded his way to the ice mage in the back of the guild, sitting at an empty table, excluding fangirling Juvia.

"NATSU!" were the words he expected to slip from that ice princess' mouth. Yet, instead, he somehow got a silent Gray quietly sipping his glass of ice coffee. The original glint of battle–battle were replaced by a glassy, far away icy fix on ahead of him, not at Natsu who was standing to his right.

"COLDBALLS!" he yelled louder in Gray's ear as the guild peered shyly at the commotion. This was starting to get annoying, Natsu punched Gray's shoulder, hoping to provoke his frienemy. He needed to blow off some of his fuming flames at someone. Gray was the perfect choice,of course.

He shot another fist at Gray, but this time at his cheek. The icy boy's head whipped back yet made no attempt of swerving back. His expression was like frozen in a block of ice and it was nearly impossible to get it to shift at least a little more life.

Natsu pulled back his arm, wanting this last punch to begin a riot, a fight, a fire. As he was about to pull the trigger, a voice ripped the situation in half. Juvia's body blocked his view of Gray as she shouted in that wimp's defense, "Natsu–san! If you dare hit Gray–sama once more, you'll have to go through Juvia first!"

"Tch." He heard himself grunt out of habit.

"Natsu, remember what I told you yesterday?" the voice he'd been wanting to listen to spoke up. Gray had stood up from behind Juvia and now was rubbing the cheek he'd hit him on. Natsu suddenly cracked with guilt as his friend stared at him, glazing with jack frost.

"You're hopeless," the ice mage stated and usually that made him seethe, but this time he remained speechless, untouched, "I'm not fighting with you right now. It's not in your best interest so it's not in mine. You have other duties to tend to, and I can't afford to waste your time while wasting mine."

Natsu watched as someone pressed pause on his entire existence as the rest of the world continued to play on time in its own act. The tenseness in his shoulders and the unforgettable smolder of what on his face. His pause began to play in animation again as he swallowed.

Gray placed his hand on Juvia's shoulder as her heart danced, but she managed to stay calm. He shook his head and she backed off as he moved seats next to Cana who was carelessly drinking, not paying any attention to what was occurring. Juvia chased after him as the guild slowly revived itself back to life from its reticence state. Natsu blinked, the world was moving on without him. He blinked again in disbelief.

As he covered one of his eyes, the other was captivated at the video of a redhead glancing in his direction then heavily releasing a pound of air from her lungs before shaking her head, dumbfound.

He let out a few mixed feelings in the form of muffled curses at the discontent Erza who he was mystified by.

Fuck you, Erza.

He moved his view to his lovely Luce as she animately exchanged words with Levy and Mira, along with Happy who was in her lap, snuggling her. A wrap of tightness squeezed his chest, making him melt and weak in his knees.

He felt the earth tumble, shooting his attention span to the steam–puffed Gajeel behind him. Before he and Gajeel could meet in combat, Erza locked her arm in Gajeel's and dragged him away from Natsu as the metal freak began to squirm in protest, brooming the floor.

Um, he wasn't sure of what he saw. It was for sure an odd thing, but… forget it.

"Natsu?" a small voice hummed in his eardrums.

"Yea, Wendy?" he eyed the blue haired girl to his left, having a white exceed companioning her side.

Carla inquired before the sympathetic words from Wendy could escape, "What's going on between you and Gray?"

He scratched the back of his neck, unsure of what himself, "He's just going through his little spoiled princess phrase."

The white cat raised a brow as Wendy quickly tried to cover up her friend's rudeness, "Carla! Don't be so impolite!"

Then, the girl shook her pigtails and timidly looked at Natsu, "I'm sorry about Carla. I don't know what's going on between you and Gray, but I hope you make up soon and become friends again."

Natsu pressed his chin to his shoulder, letting into sight a certain raven haired boy and forcefully groaned, "...Yea."

The Sky Dragon Slayer was nimble to notice this, probably due to the shift in his air, and changed the subject with a comforting upward tilt on her lips.

"Natsu! Have you watched the lacrima show_ The Legend of Korra?_" she questioned him, curiously, "Yesterday, me and Romeo watched it together, and it was really interesting!"

"I've never heard of it," he watched her, writing down on a piece of paper in the back of his head that Romeo spent personal time with Wendy. Now isn't that interesting?

"I remember that," Carla switched from examining Wendy to Natsu, "If I remember correctly, the Korra girl broke up with her boyfriend, Mako, because of work dominating their time and not their relationship."

"Ah! I remember that too!" Wendy exclaimed at Carla's remark, "I'm kinda of sad that they broke up. I mean, relationships are suppose to stay strong even if the people in it become distant."

"Oh really?" her cat had her eyes on her friend, "I actually liked Korra with Borlin better even if he's over her now. Like wouldn't they make a better match?"

"No, Carla!" Wendy argued, being headstrong, "Borlin isn't one to be able to handle Korra's mental stress. He's more of a light–hearted guy and needs a girlfriend who can keep her head up at the hardest times while helping on along the way, being able to laugh at his jokes at any time. Korra's more of a straight–forward character who needs a boyfriend who is flexible and supportive while she does her duties to the world as the Avatar. The only reason why Korra and Mako broke up is because of the stress building up against both of them, and honestly, it's a lot so I don't blame them that they took it out on each other!"

He stared at Wendy, impressed. Wendy was one who could easily read someone's mood and personality by only spending a small amount of time with them. However, even in this case, she is also a little naive and is easily deceived so she can't see the true nature of everyone around her. With this flaw, she is still has the ability to see the vibes in the air and match the mood to try to make it better. In other words, Wendy is the master comforter and best person to be around if you're just having troubles, and she won't judge you at all or attempt to pry information any of your system.

Wendy was the _ultimate_ little sister.

"Carla!" a certain piper voice flew over to their conversation.

"Happy!" Carla called at the blue cat flying over to them with his wings then landing on the floor, "What do you what now?"

"Well, I was wondering if you want my fish," he held out a neatly wrapped salmon with a pink ribbon tied around its neck.

"No!"

Natsu shrugged, feeling sorry for his blue friend too, but this was her answer to his question nine out of ten times. A _genius_ thought rattled its way to Natsu's brain.

"Hey, why don't we all go on a fun day together?" he suggested grinning full–heartedly to Wendy and the two exceeds.

Wendy's eyes glistened in anticipation, "Fun day?"

"Yea," he nodded his head, admiring on how smart he felt right now, "We can all go have some fun, and we'll do anything you want! Like fishing or playing tag."

She jumped up energetically, "Yeah! We should invite the others too!"

"Nah, not today," he shook his head, "Just you, me, and a bunch of cats."

As he said the cats part, two background noises could be heard from behind him mumbling, "Hey!"

"Like bonding time?" the girl smiled, dazzling with glittery sparkles.

"Yup."

* * *

Present time Natsu whistled in a melodious tune as exiting a fashion shop called Victor's Super–Super Secret. He now had a brown satchel around his shoulder. Safety inside of it held his precious book. Oh and his satchel was certainly not a purse. Guys don't have purses; they have super cool satchels. Quote on quote to the salesman in Victor's Super–Super Secret.

He keep where he was visiting next, and that was the guild hall of his Fairy Tail. As much as he dreaded and said he wouldn't go, he was secretly going there just to check up on the place.

Turn left at Balium's Avenue and make a U–turn around the pet shop. In literally minutes, he found himself standing in front of the all–star famous, number one guild in Fiore, Fairy Tail. He wiped the sweat on his hands on the fabric of his pants. Team Natsu, proceed!

He whirled back into the street in front of the building, turning his back to its entrance. He shut his eyes tight before bending his temple once again in the direction of his beloved guild. He pushed himself to lift his feet, walking through the gates. Nobody was in the outside parlor section, lucky him.

Instead of pressing his fingers on the doors of his Fairy Tail, he jerked his body, robotically, to the entrance to the right of the building. Step, step, step.

At the right entrance was a tiny door compared to the one in front. He had a small chance of meeting Mira if he went through this way since this is the back door where she dumps the garbage bags from the bar. This was his best bet of not being seen.

He cranked the knob of the door open, just a crack. He slipped by. He had so far to see any of the members or Mira. He walked past the kitchen where all the cooking utensils and food are found. Even with the fridge within arms reached, he had no means of taking any food and left it untouched, a second thought never crossed his mind.

As he exited the kitchen, the bar counter was insight. He ducked his head quickly then peered from its top, only letting little wisps of pink hair and beady eyes poke into view. The guild was fairly empty, and it didn't surprise him since it was still early in the morning. Either people were still asleep or out on jobs. He darted his eyes to a certain brunette. _Or drinking in Cana's case._

Wakaba sat his butt across from her somehow drinking a glass of fizzy beer and having a cigar in his mouth. Those two seemed to be the only ones present at the moment. He glanced at Elfman sleeping and snoring soundly in one corner._ Elfman, you don't count._

He perked up from the counter as Cana lazily took notice of him, pointing an intoxicated finger at him while drowning down her barrels.

"Oh, Natsu," she called to him who was currently strolling across the guild to her side, "Whatcha doing here, ya little snort?"

Wakaba fixed his cigar and chuckled, "I thought you left with Lucy and the others."

"The others?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, making it to Cana's little table, and sliding into a vacant spot next to Wakaba on his bench.

Cana waved her hand, putting down her drink for a little, "Oh yea~ Like Lucy, Gray, Erza, Juvia, Gajeel, uh. Little snicker–doodle."

"Sn–snicker–doodle? I'm afraid of who snicker–doodle is," Natsu bit his lip, blankly scared the fuck out of his wits whoever that was.

The drunken mage waved her hand casually, as if it was so very obvious, "Our little to–be superstar, Wendy."

"Oh," the steam drained from his throat in relief, "Oh, that's… good to know."

Wakaba's giggle fest could be heard from the next town.

"Shut up, you old man," Natsu glared at him as the man held his mouth and removed his cigar from his mouth to just laugh even harder.

"Ghahahahahaa!" he saw one pink hair on Natsu's head stick up, forcing him to choke out more laughs every time he glanced at Natsu, "Na–na, hahaha! HAHAHHA! HAHA!"

"YOU OLD HAG, NOW JUST SHADDUP, I'M TRYING TO ASK CANA SOMETHING!" he stood up from his seat and breathed a fearsome roar at his fellow guildmate. Too bad, his fellow guildmate was used to him behavior and brushed it off.

Natsu punched Wakaba in the face with a silly pout. The old cigar smoker tumbled over his seat onto the floor, clutching his cheek and bawling some color language.

"Now Cana, go on," Natsu sat back down, straightening his spine and politely gesturing the drinker to continue.

"Uh, hic, 'kay," Cana pushed aside her drink and leaned forward toward Natsu, "Now I shouldn't be tellin' ya this, bbuuuuutt~"

Natsu bit his lip and frowned even further, giving him this absolutely adorable pout that if Levy and Lucy were here. Levy would be most definitely elbowing Lucy continuously in the stomach.

"Fine. I'll buy you drinks for the next two weeks."

"Make it three, and I'll cough up the info."

…

The brunette lifted her brow, suggestively over and over, with one of her hands pulled out in front of her, showing her palm, and lifting her fingers up again and again. His pout deepened in depth once again.

"Fine."

Her smile turned into a Cana–ish smirk. She lit up like a Christmas tree the moment Natsu gave in.

"Goooooooooood choice!~" Cana's grin grew in size, her body leaning back then throwing her arms behind her neck, "So everyone I said before, plus three kittens, are going to someplace called… uh, Mimi's Fortress, I think?"

From the floor, Wakaba hollered to correct the lady mage, still squealing from the pain delivered by Natsu, " It's Maya's Forest, dammit!"

"Yeah, yeah," Cana mumbled, nodding her head while sticking her tongue out unsteadily, "Direct orders from Gramps. He wants those squirts to go investigate it. I'm not sure. Heard it from Reedus. I think they're leaving on a train over there at ten?"

He glanced at the clock Mira sometimes leaves on the counter. It was nine twenty–eight.

"Shit, they're taking train, right?" Natsu jerked his attention back at Canna, hurrying to get the rest of her information out of her.

"Yup, that's all I know," she grabbed her barrel of alcohol and began her drinking session again.

Natsu stood up and looked at both Wakaba on the ground and drinking Cana, "You guys can't tell anyone that I came here or asked, okay?"

Canna waved it off as Wakaba just cackled rudely. He clicked his tongue as his back faced the pair. He had to hurry, or he wouldn't make it on time for that train.

He rushed out of the guild's grounds. He made way for his next location he needed to set foot on, running with breathing unbalanced and his brown satchel pounding his side.

* * *

Past Natsu's and Wendy's fun day was, as in name, actually fun.

He and Wendy first went to the arcade with Happy and Carla and played some multiplayer lacrima games. Natsu even managed to win a stuffed walrus for her! Sadly, Happy didn't win anything for Carla at the crane game because he sucked at it.

After that they played at a nearby playground, Natsu pushed Wendy on the swings. Happy and Carla on the other hand… he couldn't say those two had much fun when Happy accidentally shoved Carla into a mud puddle.

They went to a play which he nearly burned down the building just Wendy had not restrained him. But that didn't matter 'cause Happy got everyone kicked out by pranking one of the main actors.

When evening met their time, Natsu and Happy escorted Wendy and Carla to their dorms. But because Happy just a little sneak, the blue cat decided to stay the night at Wendy's. Natsu excused himself and found his way back into his home.

Spending time with Wendy was a stress reliever. He twisted the knob of his cottage's door. Lucy, Gray, Erza. Those people were confusing. Wendy is medicine.

He smiled to himself as he walked through the door and quickly ran into his bedroom, tackling his bedrock mattress. He nuzzled his blankets, the ones he had secretly stolen from Lucy's house so whenever he couldn't see her; he could find comfort in the cloth that was originally hers and filled with the scent of _Lucy Heartfilia._

He squeezed his eyes shut, stripping off his vest and sandals as he did. He moved closer into the blanket's cotton. He felt warmer, like a hot piece of freshly baked pie. His cheeks were scorching in a shade of pink. His fingers pinched his cheeks lightly.

Lucy. Lucy. Lucy.

He loved the sound of her name. He was so far from her, and he was getting lonely. His heart feel like it was in tumbles of yarn, unable to unwound itself from the strings. He wrapped the blanket even closer to his skin.

He pinched his cheeks a little harder. He wished it was just a dream, and he'll soon find himself lying next to Lucy in her soft bed. He grumbled, disheartenedly. He knew he wasn't in a dream. But he could lie to himself.

The temperature on his face rose higher as he giggled playfully.

Lucy. Lucy. _Hello, Lucy._

He buried his pink cheeks and hair deeper into the blankets. Soon enough, he bashfully melted into the musings of his wild imagination with he and Lucy Heartfilia.

* * *

Present Natsu kicked open the doors of the Heartfilia residence _a.k.a._ Lucy's apartment. If he climbed through the windows, he might accidentally ruin his cherished little book in the process therefore he was definitely not taking that option. He rushed upstairs onto the second floor where Lucy's bedroom was. He barged in to only find the familiar place dead empty. He looked in every nook and cranny for his little blond friend. She's not in the bathroom, or in bed, or anywhere downstairs. He stared at the clock in the room, proceeding into smacking himself in the face._ Of course! She's can't be still packing right now if she's going at fucking ten!_

The time marked on the little clock said nine thirty–nine. He punched himself in the jaw as punishment for being so stupid.

He had to go now if he wanted to– The book in his bag touched his sides gently. He pulled out the book and fall backwards into Lucy's pink sheeted bed. Like hypnosis, he needed to read the next page of _Dragon's Recorded History of X776._ Before he did anything else, he had to read the next page. It was an instinct, and lately his instincts were something he could maybe trust.

Magically, he flipped to the right page and began to read it aloud, letting his ears fill, in replacement of silence and occasional buzzing, with his own voice telling him a story, "I've taken my medicine like Anya told me to. I'm sending Bastille to attend to the soldiers. It seems they're broken through the first wall, surprisingly. My brother is going there to see whether or not they changed their tactics drastically or the breakdown was out of pure luck.

"We are having inside conflicts in the organization. Seems words spreads quickly when you're at war.

"Kikav's right leg has been completely severed off by that damn monster! She's currently asleep from anaesthesia. That girl has managed to close the wound with stitches, but it doesn't mean she'll live. She's lost too much blood, and a cut–off leg might be too for her nervous system to handle. Where is Justinian when you need him?

"Anya just left camp to mend broken bonds between our operatives. It's all my fault.

"I shouldn't have never chose Maya's Forest as the battlefield!"

He read over the last sentence again.

Wait. _Maya's Forest?_ Wasn't that. Wait. What?

His eyes shuddered. The gang was going over to where this book was first written. Why do the dots connect? He has the information, just not the missing links. He messed with his hair fiercely, hissing between his teeth. This was freaking _shitty!_

He sucked his a breath. Realizing there was another link, he shot up from his spot on Lucy's bed and glanced over at her bookshelf, searching for a peculiar book.

His finger brushed the spines of the books as he stopped at the last of her collection of books. Wait. He double–checked the self for the book again. Wait.

It wasn't here.

He cursed slamming his fist into the bookshelf. Luckily, it only shivered at his touch but didn't topple.

He remembered once when he and Happy mistakenly burned a book of Lucy's when she was taking a bath. He lied to her and said it was interesting just to cover up the fact he'd burned it. She said it was precious and a memento from her mother. He and Happy tried to find another copy of it, knowing anything from Lucy's late mother was super important to her. In the end, they couldn't lie to her anymore and told her the truth. She raced off in tears but came back later to show up with tons of copies of the book. Turns out she had written that book and tried to publish after fairy tales her mother had told her when she was younger. The book's name? _Maya's Forest._

After Lucy appeared with the books and spilled to everyone the truth. Both parties felt guilty, and Gray came over to have them settle it with a drink of Coca–Cola. Since then, it was forgotten history, but now… Now it was a spider web connection between Lucy's mother, the dragons, and_ Dragon's Recorded History of X776._

In other words, that meant Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia were tangled in the case of the missing dragons. It wasn't like they hadn't been already though.

A thought entered his curious mind.

Does that mean Lucy knows what happened to the dragons?

He shook his head, doubtfully. If she did, she would have already told everyone the truth long ago.

He sighed, the air singeing slightly around him. He silently picked up his book and stashed it away into his satchel's protection. Upon exiting Lucy's apartment in a sprint, he made a mental map of how to get to the train station with record time.

* * *

Our little cherry haired Natsu poked his head from behind a corner at the train station. There stood only a few feet away from him were three cats, Lucy, Frosty, scary Erza, steel cake, Juvia, and little snicker–doodle.

They were talking animatively, but sadly he wasn't able to eavesdrop on their conversation due to the fact he was too far away. And that his ears were clogging up on him.

From the scene they were making along with Erza's fucking luggage, Gajeel was teasing Lucy, Gray was trying to run from Juvia, Erza and Wendy were for some reason playing poker together, and the exceeds were having a contest to see who could jump the highest (Pantherlily was winning).

From the time told by clock, it was nine fifty–seven. He almost didn't make it in time. Crippled in his fist was a train ticket. One to a town near Maya's Forest called Cerulean. He'd overhead Gajeel screaming about some place named "Cerulean" not too long ago and just cramped the puzzle pieces together like he always did, even if they didn't fit.

This was why he was banned from playing with puzzles when he was little.

He pressed from back against the wall and moved his head away from the gang. He was going to follow them to their destination. A distinct chu–choo could be heard near by. He twisted his head behind the corner to see a train at the rails, stopping.

_"Train #203 from Magnolia to Cerulean is arriving at the station,"_ he listened to a loudspeaker voice from the intercoms. That was his cue.

In his hand was a solid black fedora. His pink hair was super noticeable and stuck out like a sore thumb. He needed to hide it.

Tucking his hair neatly under his hair, he trailed behind the gang into their train. Now he knew how it felt like to be Juvia. It was freaking hard to stalk somebody…

Especially if you're caught, a redheaded monster will come and eat your soul.

He coughed into his fist. _Erza._

Team Natsu plus some sat their butts onto the next cart in a small loveseats facing loveseats formation. Natsu set himself two sections away from them, but close enough to keep him eye on them.

The good part was motion sickness no longer stuck his stomach, and now he could freely enjoy the joy of moving without moving your legs. And his little section was completely vacant except for him hogging the entire space. Yay.

The train hushed before cranking into action, moving forward inch into inch. He stared out the window as different sceneries sped by him in a flash. He looked back at his targets, may be more or not focused on a certain blond in the group. He blinked, slamming his head into the cushion beside him. He screamed, the cushion doing everyone else a favor by muffling it to the point were it only sounded like a distant door creaking.

Stop thinking, look at the window.

He raised his head and pulled his attention to the window.

Out of the corner of his eye, he found himself watching a certain blond. To the cushion and a muted scream, he continued to repeat this process until the train halted at their desired station.

* * *

His legs were curled up against the stagecoach's rear seats on its outside. The thumping of the unsteady rhythm of the horses calmed him. Now that the dumbass motion sickness was cured; he loved the rush of riding transportation, and it's inadament, tiny comforts.

His fedora and satchel sat close to him in his lap. He was technically hitchhiking on Team Natsu plus some's downgraded carriage without them knowing. He was spawn across the backside where the secondary shotgun messenger should be. Lucky, lucky, for him. Nobody wanted to guard the backend where by design a wedge stuck out from the side (Natsu was now currently occupying), and it was Gray's turn to lead the horses in the front of the stagecoach.

At the moment, he and the rest of his buddies were trailing down in a deep part of the forest, the wheels of the stagecoach rolling on a simple dirted road.

He sighed, boredom was striking his forehead. His hand reached into his satchel and pulled out his red leather book. He flipped to the last page he'd read and softly whispered to him the next lines.

"Right now, I'm heading over to the witch's cave. Maya's Forest. I should've known! This was all a trap! It's the reason why those little bastards can't do a thing, and why I can't focus! It's been eating off my soul! My magic.

"Maya. Anya. Maya. Anya.

"Maya is Anya's mother. That silly fairy tale. I should've listened!

"That air dragon can't do a damn thing right! She should just ditch that blue haired child, Wendy!–"

He nearly choked, but his other hand slapped over his mouth.

Smack.

"What was that?" he heard Gray plainly announce from his seat in the front.

"Dunno. Probably your imagination, you dozing off bastard." Gajeel, hello to you too.

"Gajeel!" Juvia's voice pulled at the ends of at studbud's name, scolding him like a mother to her bad son.

"You shut up. You got the hots for some bookwormy chick."

"You! You're askin' for it, you punk!"

"Ga–"

"You two morons, halt! We are on our way to a very important mission, and we do not need you two to bust up our ride there and back. Now sit down!" Erza's voice stung the air as Natsu could clearly hear the immediate noise of two buttheads sitting their asses down.

A good moment of silence tip–toed by before Lucy cleared her throat awkwardly and started a conversation directed to little snicker–doodle, "So… Wendy."

Natsu glanced back to his book and blocked out the chatter of swapping of words between his guild members.

"Wendy." He gulped anxiously. Wendy Marvel was written in this book.

"She's just a poor child. I bet that monster gotta ditch her someday for that. Oh well. Not my problem," his fist tightened and crinkled the page of the book it was holding.

"I hate the dragons." His paper was slowly folding in half.

"I mean, they think they're all that. Just 'cause they have impressive skills in magic." His teeth sawed from left ro right.

"They should all **die.**"

He would have thrown the book off the carriage if it had not been for the heavy bump at one of the wheels and Gray obxiously calling out, "We're here!"

Get the fuck out.

He slipped the book back into his bag and silently listened to the rustling of his comrades dismounting the wagon.

He counted on his fingers; seven rustles. Erza, Lucy, Juvia, Wendy, Happy, Carla, Gray. One more. A pause erupted before, eight, or Gajeel, exited the little wooden ride.

Gajeel's feet twisted around before following his friend's lead to wherever.

Natsu fixed his posture, readying for himself to leave the carriage. A little thought rolled across his mind.

Gajeel's a Dragon Slayer. Meaning enhanced senses. What if Gajeel smelled his scent and knew he was here? Doesn't that mean Wendy knows he was here too? His feet slid off the stagecoach and onto the ground. Why haven't they told on him yet?

Of course, they wanted to know why he followed them.

His skin tingled as the shivers of his fear grasped his thoughts. His attention was turned to the settlement in front of him that he had somehow had noticed before from behind the wagon. A gigantic castle.

That was more like a fancier up mansion. With big doors and velvet bricks. It almost reminded him of Fairy Tail's new building.

He swallowed, sweat hugging the palms of his hands.

He glanced at the gang entering through the castle's front door. Natsu quickly hid behind the stagecoach and poked his head to see what they were doing. Erza pushed the door with her super muscles and the other walked through the doors with ease.

Pink haired Natsu waited another second before rushing into the mansion–castle along with them.

When he saw the inside, he held his breath. It was down in ruins, crumbling walls made of stone covered the place. From what he could tell, the place didn't have any furniture that was in tact. Just random pieces of items in the dust here and there.

Fortunately for him, the room was a bit dark due to the lack of windows. He escaped into the darkness of one corner of the world were he blended in easily.

"What happened here?" Wendy asked curiously as she and the rest of the group's eyes circled the room in awe.

Gajeel scoffed, arms crossed as usually, "It's old. Some thieves have to come through here now and then."

"It can't be just thieves," Lucy dropped in, her irises sparkling with bewilder, "Battles from who knows what possibly occurred here."

"There are some weird engravings on the floor," Carla's sharp tone intercepted the conversation, her paws brushing the ground in front of her, "I can't read it. It's in some scribble–scrabble that definitely not normal characters in the alphabet."

"Oh, Carla, you're so smart!" Happy voiced cooed, walking to her side and staring at the direction where Carla's attention was.

Everyone else in the group peered over her shoulders at the spot in the ground.

_Dammit._ He swore._ I can't see a thing from where I am._

"Oh. You're right, it is weird," Erza praised the white cat, nodding her head in approval.

"Maybe Levy can read it," Lucy suggested, still examining the thing or engraving or what.

Gajeel did his signature _'geehee'_ before insulting at her suggestion, "I bet shrimp can't even figure out a thing about this gibber. It's just some child's doodle. Nothing at all of importance."

Lucy pouted, glaring daggers at Gajeel who just went on laughing like it was the funniest thing in Earthland.

"Well, just in case," Gray bent in knees, proceeding to pressing his finger on the stone, "I can just memorize its shape and make it again later with my magic to show to Levy."

"That's a genius idea. Gray–sama!" Juvia squealed and threw her arms around his neck, forcing Gray to collapse on the dirty ground.

"St–stop!" Gray's face went blue as he begged someone to rip her from his neck.

Erza causally pulled Juvia from Gray and pointed to the stairs, "Look. There are stairs. We must continue to thoroughly investigate this place as Master said."

The others nodded, except laughing Gajeel, and headed toward the staircase. Although, the hisses of _"love rival"_ and _"Gray–sama is mine"_ could be heard from the floor in this creepy, jealous–corrupted aura.

Natsu stalked behind them after Juvia scrambled to catch up with her "Gray–sama".

The next floor was identical to the first. Crumbling structure and strange writings hidden all over the floor. Again, Erza isolated another case of stairs, and Team Natsu plus some climbed it to the next floor. The _third_ floor. Like the other two floors, it was turning to rumble wall–and–floor–wise. It lacked windows and was dark. The difference was… well.

The creature bellowed. It's teeth dangerously close to the gang's heads. Black scales and yellow eyes. It looked oddly nostalgic even so.

It was like a wyvern, minus the wings, and plus two little doggy legs and paws.

It had taken the team by surprise. Erza stood still in paralysis as say Carla, Happy, and Lucy. Gray's eyes were glassed, and his fingers shook inhumanly. Gajeel had his mouth wide open, and he had tried to move his legs forward. Bad for him, he were tangled in some kind of web. And he was stuck for now.

On the other hand, Wendy was first to react and attack the beast.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!"

A gust of air rippled at the creature's stomach. It growled as Wendy backed up and prepared for her next attack. She made the motion of breathing in oxygen, but before she could release it, the monster gagged some sort of "slime" at the others who were still starstruck.

"Carla!" Wendy called in fear as the slime blanketed everyone else.

"Wendy!" Carla shrieked as the green slime clung to her fur. She struggled to throw it off her, but it only wrapped around her paws tightly.

"Requip!" the red knight commanded her magic, holding out her arm for her chosen weapon… only that it never came.

"What?" the look of distress and dread drowned by expression, her eyes locked on her empty fingers.

"Open! Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!" Lucy yanked out her keys and attempted to dial for her mermaid spirit. Her magic didn't even glow as nothing at all happened.

"Dammit! I can't feel my magic!" Gray cursed, still wide–eyed and scanning the slime on his hands, "I think this slime is blocking our magic!"

"No, shit, Sherlock!" Gajeel spat, struggling to kick his boots forward.

"What do we do!? I wish Natsu was here!" a blue exceed cried, his feet failing to support him as he sat on the floor.

"Don't worry, guys, I'll save you!" Wendy's determination rose as she turned her head at the beast who disabled her friends' magic abilities.

She begun to collect air into her lungs, a mass of wind directed to her. The Dragon Slayer would've done another roar if she hadn't started to choke. Hysterically.

A certain dream from two days ago haunted his insides. He wouldn't allow himself to do nothing this time. He was going to help his sister this time. He swore an oath to.

"Wendy!" he screamed, racing toward her and ripping himself from the deep shadows in the corner of the room.

The group's attention span pierced at the pink haired boy. Who, of course, shouldn't have been here.

Shocked faces spread from one to another as Wendy gagged even harder as she saw the sight of Natsu Dragneel. He guarded Wendy's side, holding her wrist with one hand and pounding her back with his other. She coughed once again before weakly meeting his eyes, 'I'm… okay, Natsu."

His eyebrows scrunched together at her soft, weak tone. She stumbled forward, but he caught her in his arms before she could move forward to the beast who was busy howling his brains out.

"It's okay," he whispered to her gently, dropped her slowly to the ground, "I'll take care of the rest now."

"B–but…" Wendy sat down, her legs underneath her temple as she shook her head then smiled at him, "Okay, Natsu."

His hand squeezed her wrist before leaving her to deal with the black monster. Protests from the slim–coated gang blessed his ears. The beast quit howling as he felt it take sudden interest in him. It whined, but then snarled aggressively.

He clenched his fist. _You hurt my comrades; I pay you back tenfold._

The creature hissed, almost like flames burning wood in a bonfire. It's black scales abruptly flared in red, red flames. Oh, so that's why it looked so familiar. It was like Atlas Flame. It was a creature who dwelled in the fires of hell.

He could've swore he heard it snicker tauntingly. Fuck you, I have an advantage.

He smirked real big, strolling over to the scorching monster. More screams from his slimy friends to stop licked his hearing before he finally met face to face, one inch from the fiery freak's leg. _Watch this kind of magic, bitch._

He held his breath then tried to suck the flames into his mouth. Only that none came to him. Irritated, he attempted it again with a huge breathing motion. The creature giggled at his failures, staying still on purpose just for his own humor.

He frowned. No. He refused to give up. He shoved his lips straight onto the freaking beast's flames as a burning sensation kissed back to his nervous system.

An uncomfortable feeling gnawed his soft lips, forcing him, on instinct, to jerked his head back and scream. Scream_ really_ loud.

"Natsu!" Lucy's cry bounced in his head as he fell backwards on the ground. His vision staggered as the beast scoffed out flames and hungrily locked his beady yellow eyes at him. The torch was done teasing him.

At that moment, apparently, when Natsu was messing out the match monster, Wendy had wiped off slime from Erza and had successfully removed it all from Erza's fingers. To put it in small context, that was all Erza needed to be free from the slime's magic disabling properties on her.

"Requip!" Erza's outfit switched to her Heaven's Wheel armor and swung a gravity–defying sword in between the monster's eyes. It howled and threw its head back. Wendy has rushed over to the frozen Natsu and dragged him away from Erza chucking swords at the flaming bastard.

It only took another minute before Erza had successfully defeated the monster, making it drop dead. It's flames died out while its scaly wyvern base crumbled to ashes within seconds.

"Sorry," she requiped into her normal Heart Klutz armor, spinning her red hair to look at comrades, "That took longer than I thought. Some of the slime is still clinging in my hair."

Everyone who she called "comrade" shivered, recalling her hundred monster victory at the Grand Magic Games. She had said something similar when she murdered all the hundred mechanical beasts.

The ones covered in green liquid begun to strip away the slime from themselves when the ones who weren't helped him. Natsu, on the other side, sat dauntfully with a singeing lip and a dazed confusion puzzling his mind.

"Natsu," he heard a voice murmured to him as he robotically cranked his head to stare at a group of mages giving him a serious wave.

"How the fuck did you follow us here?" Gray tilted his head, the serious wave within the group covered with dumbfoundedness.

"Ca–" he slapped a hand over his mouth, not wanting to get Cana and Wakaba in trouble for spilling him the beans.

Gajeel cackled like an old, hoarse man, "Geehee. Cana and Wakaba, huh?"

Natsu's eyes locked at the iron maniac, surprised he had read his mind exactly.

Erza shook her hair, "Should have known. They were nearby when Master told us the basics."

Wendy gave him a funny look then glanced at Gajeel, "So that's why you said to not mention he was here."

All eyes shot to Wendy at this point.

"Wha? You knew, Wendy?" Carla beamed at her in astonishment.

"Yup," she nodded her head graciously, "Gajeel told me to not tell though. Then again, I wasn't sure if it was Natsu since his usually scent was a little different, but oh well."

All eyes then shot to Gajeel.

"What?" he shrugged, not exactly wanting the spotlight of interrogation directed to him, "Like Wendy said, I wasn't sure if it was flame–brains, and even if it was him, I wanted to know why he was stalking us."

"Gajeel, you should have told us, at least," Juvia puffed her cheeks out childishly at her friend, arms crossing discontentedly.

Iron club rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

"Natsu, why were you following us?" Happy's curious voice cut Gajeel's reign and started Natsu's.

All eyes shot at our little pink haired dragon.

"Sh–shaddup! I just asked where everyone was, and Cana just kept rambling her mouth with Wakaba's dumb comments!" he defended himself, arms circling in the air.

He suddenly remembered the pain in his lips, and his fingers retreated to his mouth as an anguished expression punched his face.

The silent Lucy steps forward and knees down, pulling a bottle of ointment from her backpack and unscrewed it. He watched her as heat ran through in veins and to his cheeks. With a poker face, she dipped her thumb into the jar and then pressed it against the scorch on his lips.

"Lu–lucy," he fumbled with his words, jolting at her touch to his lips.

"That was a stupid thing you did."

"Wh–wha?"

She met his eyes with her brown pair and spoke to him carefully, "I told you no more missions. You can't use your magic. If you can't use your magic, how do you expect to eat fire and fight without it?"

"...Sorry."

"Stop moving your lips, I'll trying to put medicine on it."

He was flustered and sat quietly as Lucy rubbed his lips gently. Honestly, it was really awkward. Awkward like the time he and Gray had accidentally seen her naked. The pinkness in her cheeks deepened.

A few more seconds passed before Wendy stepped up from behind Juvia.

"Lucy, I can take it from here and heal Natsu with my magic."

Before Lucy could respond, Erza sliced her arm in between her and Wendy.

"Wendy, remember that Dragon Slayer magic is only sucked up and weakened here. At some point if you continue to use it recklessly, it will dry out completely, and you can never use magic again," she stared at her, stating the truth in a sympathetic tone.

"Oh… right," Wendy's head faced the floor, disheartenedly.

"Wait, what?" Natsu glanced from Wendy to Erza as Lucy's thumb touched his lips.

Juvia coughed, "Erza–san, since he is here. Why not just tell him everything now?"

Erza looked at her and then thought for a moment before agreeing, "Of course, that is the practically thing to do."

She paused then started to explain to him words and reasons, "Master told us all to come here together to investigate Maya's Forest for a job because some strange activity is happening, and the people of the neighboring town, Cerulean, are afraid of it, deeply. There is a rumor that anyone of dragon origin magic are weakened here due to a monster eating their magic energy to survive. It's said that every year around the end of August that a force comes and attracts Dragon Slayers to this area to swallow their souls. We are here to confirm and defeat it. And–"

Erza was intercepted by Gray who broke it to him straight out, "And we think it has to do with your magic dilemma, the "monster" is somehow eating your magic from a distance. We also think that this very area, Maya's Forest, has some role in the dragon's disappearance seven, no, fourteen years ago."

Lucy had stopped rubbing medicine on his lips at this point, a shallow expression disguised her face as he sat on the floor in absolute disorientation.

He opened his now ointment glossed lips but couldn't pick out the correct words to distinguish his troubles. Instead, Lucy lean forward to him and wrapped her warm, warm arms around his neck, snugly. She whispered in his ear faintly, setting the last piece of information they knew in his little thought–machine maker,

"And I _love_ you."

No, wait, scratch that. That was his imagination being cruel to him again.

Lucy picked up her eyes and shot them through his soul, humming low enough for him and only him to listen to, "And we think it might be connected to the book of Zeref, along with the E.N.D., and my mother's death."

* * *

**Author's Note: Like I said before, really sorry for the late update. Excuse the grammar mistakes. And The Legend of Korra thing in this, it was last week's episode, and I have yet to watch the next. I love you all! Hope for long chapter makes up for the lateness, and I can't promise for this coming Friday/Saturday's update. Pokemon Y. And, baby, remember to _review! _**

**Tune in next time for Chapter 6: I Hate Ironbutt Gajeel.**

**–dragonsdeed  
**

**[Edit: Fucking sorry for the major grammar mistakes, and if it confused you! Most of them are fixed, but please tell me if there are some still sticking around. Thanks!~]**


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